^i^Y  Of  mtti 


BX    7233     .B4    S4 
Beecher,    Henry 

6th   ser.    187^ 
Ward,    1813- 

1887. 

The   sermons   of 

Henry  Ward 

■R  fi  fi  r*  h  «a  T-         in     Pi 

irm/^i  1  +■  H 

THE    SERMONS 


ov 


HENRY  WARD    BEECELER, 


IN 


Plymouth  Churchy  Brooklyn, 

FROM  VERBATIM  REPORTS  BY  T.  J.  ELLINWOOD. 

"PLYMOUTH   PULPIT," 

SIXTH   SERIES: 

MARCH— SEP  rEMBER,  1871. 


NEW   YORK: 

J.  B.  FORD  &  COMPANY, 

I  872. 


CONTENTS. 


Paob. 
—        L  God's  Disinterestedness  (Matt,  v.,  48)      .        «        ,         9 

Lesson:  Gal.  V.    *Hymns:  173,  648,  680. 

II.  The  Liberty  of  the  Gospel  (Acts  xxi.  15-26^        .         33 
Lesson  :  Acts  xv,  1-33.   Hymns  :  40,  683, 1262. 
III.  Love-Service  (Gal.  v.,  13,  14)        .        ,        ,        ,         55 
Lesson:  Eph.  lli.    Hymns  :  31,  431, 1259. 

IV".  The  Social  Principle  in  Religion  (Eph.  ii.,  19-22)      13 

Lesson  :  Luke  xxi.    Hymns:  639,  668.  717. 

_        V.  The  Faith  of  Love  (John  xx.,  29)         .         ,         ,         97 

LE3BON:  Isa.  Ix.    HYMNS:  284,  255.  653. 

VI.  Special  Divine  Providence  (Matt,  vi.,  33)     •         .       115 
Lesson:  Matt,  vl.,  19-31.   Hymns:  73,  193,  663. 

VII.  The  Law  of  Benevolence  (Gal.  vi.,   10)       .         .         135 
Lesson:  Rom.  xii.   Hymns;  199,  816.  1001. 

VIII.  The  Ages  to  Come  (Eph.  ii.,  1)     .        .         .        ,         159 

Lesson:  Heb.  xii.,  1-11;  22-25.    Hymns:  725,  878,  1259. 

IX.  The  Two  Revelations  (Rom.  ii.,  14-16)       .        .         179 

Lesson:  Matt,  v.,  3-16.   Hymns:  687,  849,  78. 

X.  God's  AVorkmanship  in  Man  (Eph.  ii.,  8-n)        •         197 

Lesson  :  Heb.  iv.   Hymns  :  130,  905, 1185. 

XL  The  Name  of  Jesus  (Phil,  ii.,  9-11)      .         .        .         217 
Lesson  :  Phil.  11..  1-13.   Hymns  :  268,  292.  551. 

XII.  The  Lesson  from  Paris  (Rev.  xviii.,  7,  8)    .        .         235 
Lesson:  Rev.  xviii.,  1-8.   Hymns:  1020,  1011,  982. 

XnL  Suspended  Moral  Convictions  (John  xii.,  42,  43)         253 

Lesson:  John  xii.,  30^.   Hymns:  24,  514,  898. 
XIV.  Truthfulness  (Col.  iii.,  9,   10)        .         .         .         .         275 

Lesson  :  Psa.  xxxiil.    hymns  :  693,  619,  657. 

XV.  Heart-Conviction  (Rom.  x.,  10)   .         .        .        .         293 

Lesson  :  Col.  1.   Hymns  :  104,  112,  21. 

XVI.  The  Glory  of  Jehovah  (Ex.  xxxiv.,  5-7)     .         .         313 
Lesson  :  Job  xxxviil.   Hymns  :  199,  128,  888. 

XVIL  Soui^BuiLDiNG  (1  Cor.  iii.,  10,  11)        .        .        .        335 

Lesson:  I  Cor.  Hi.,  1-17.   Hymns:  270,  607, 1263. 

XVIII.  Reugious  Fervor  (Rom.  xii.,  11)  ,        •  351 

Lesson  ;  Kom.  xH.   Hymns  :  40,  247, 


•  PLYMOUTH  COLLECTIOir. 


IV  CONTENTS. 

XIX.  A  Safe  Guide  for  Young  Men  (Genesis  xxviii.,  20-22)   371 

liESSON:  Psa.  Ixxiii.,  1-26.    HYMNS;  898,  878,  353. 

XX.  TuE  Heart-Power  op  the  Gospel  (Rom.  i.,  16)  .         391 

Lesson:  Matt,  xiii.,  1-17.    Hymns:  725,  096,  Shining  Shore. 

XXL  The  Lord's  Prayer 409 

Lesson:  1  Pet.  ii  ,  9-25.    Hymns  :  1335,  816,  715. 

XXIL  Remnants  (Rom.  ix.,  27) 425 

LESSON  :  Psa.  xc.    Hymns  :  868,  816,  1230. 

XXIIL  The  New  Birth  (John  iii.,  5-7)     .         ...         443 

LESSON :  Eph.  Hi.,  13-21.    Hymns  813,  854,  784, 

XXIV.  Working  out  our  own  Salvation  (Phil,  ii.,  12,  13)     461 

Lesson:  Psa.  xxiil.   Hymns:  847,  865,  1251. 

XXV.  The  Preacher's  Cojoiission  (Matt,  xxviii.,   19,  20)        477 
Lesson :  2  Thess.  ii..  16, 17;  II.,  1-16.    Hymns:  1008,  981, 1163. 

XX VL  The  Privilege  of  Working  (Eph.  iii.,  8)      .        .        497 
Lesson  :  1  Pet.  I.    Hymns  :  43,  424,  666. 


GoD'S   DiSINTEKESTEDNESS. 


INVOCATION. 

Accept  our  praise,  and  lead  us  from  praise  to  joy,  and  into  the  holy  con- 
fidence which  thou  dost  grant  unto  them  who  have  the  secret  of  the 
Almighty.  Breathe  upon  us  afresh,  this  morning,  with  reviving  light  and 
power.  Grant  that  every  one  of  us,  and  each  in  his  own  necessity,  may  find 
thee.  Draw  near  to  every  one;  and  may  thine  hands  be  so  full  of  blessings 
that  each  shall  find  that  which  he  needs.  Help  us,  we  pray  thee,  in  fellow- 
ship one  with  another,  to  sing  rejoicingly  thy  praise.  Help  us  all,  with 
common  weakness,  and  common  sin,  and  common  needs,  to  draw  near  in 
humble  supplication,  and  commune  with  thee  by  prayer.  Lift  upon  us,  we 
pray  thee,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  light  of  the  other  world,  that  we  may  see 
in  it  the  remedies  for  aU  the  wants  and  deficiencies  of  this.  Grant  that 
every  service,  whether  of  devotion  or  of  instruction  or  of  enjoyment,  in 
the  sanctuary  or  at  home,  through  all  the  hours  of  this  day,  may  have  thine 
approval  and  inspiration.  Which  we  ask  in  the  name  of  the  Beloved. 
Amen. 

1. 


PKIHCETOIT     \^ 


THSOLOGIG^ 


GOD'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS. 


•'  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect."—Matt,  v.,  48. 


I  suspect  that  almost  every  one  reads  this  merely  as  a  command 
that  we  should  become  perfect  persons.  And  very  many  suppose  it 
to  be  a  command  that  we  shall  be  as  perfect  as  God  is — that  the  meas- 
ure of  perfection  in  us  shall  be  as  complete  as  is  the  measure  of  per- 
fection in  God. 

In  the  first  place,  the  command,  He  ye  therefore  perfect^  is  not  to 
be  considered  in  a  rigidly  imperative  sense.  It  is  not,  in  other 
words,  to  be  supposed  that  perfection  can  be  attained  by  men  with 
the  mode  of  organization  employed  in  their  creation,  in  their  rela- 
tions to  this  world,  in  their  relations  to  social  life,  and  in  their  re- 
lations to  God  and  the  future.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the 
perfect  outline  which  is  to  be  filled  \ip  before  we  can  be  perfect  is 
the  creature  of  volition.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  man  can 
be  perfect  simply  by  willing  to  be  perfect ;  or,  that  perfection  is  a 
state  wrought  in  men  by  a  supernal  power,  with  instantaneousness, 
with  miraculousness,  if  I  may  so  call  it.  It  is  not  the  supposition 
that  men,  being  called  from  darkness  to  light,  can,  either  by  the 
force  of  their  own  will,  or  by  the  overwhelming  power  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  rise  suddenly  into  conditions  of  spiritual  perfection.  For 
evei-ywhere  throughout  the  Bible  there  is  the  recognition  of  that 
which  we  find  always  to  be  the  fact,  that  even  under  the  best  con- 
ditions men  reach  toward  perfection  by  growth. 

"Grow in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ." 

But  growth  is  in  its  nature  gradual.  It  is  a  process  of  gradual 
evolution.  And  it  is  said,  even  of  Christ  himself,  that  he  was  made 
perfect,  though  a  Son,  by  the  things  which  he  suffered. 

He  developed  in  his  mortal  state  by  assuming  conditions  of  mor- 
tality. He  became  subject  to  this  law  of  gradual  development ;  and 
he  grew  in  knowledge  and  stature,  and  in  favor  with  God  and  man, 
and  in  the  elements  of  wisdom  and  goodness.  And  that  which  was 
true  of  the  Saviour,  was  true  of  the  apostles.     And  that  which  was 

Sunday  Morning,  Mar.  12, 1871.   Lesson  :  Gat.  V.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Collection) : 
Nos.  173,  048,  680. 


10  GOB'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS. 

true  of  the  apostles,  has  been  true  of  good  men  in  every  age  since 
that  time.  They  have  come  gradually,  and  through  a  process  of 
education,  into  the  higher  conditions  of  a  spiritual  life.  So  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  we  are  commanded,  by  a  jump,  to  come  to 
that  which  experience  teaches  us  we  can  come  to  only  by  growth — 
by  gradual  succession. 

We  might,  therefore,  give  to  this  J3e  ye,  the  force  of  Strive  to 
be.  This  is  a  general  command  implying  that  an  action  is  already 
set  on  foot.  It  implies  that  this  is  a  thing  to  be  done  in  your  seeking 
to  be  perfect.  The  spirit  of  the  passage  is,  Be  perfect  as,  or  according 
to  the  manner  in  which,  God  himself  chooses  to  be  perfect.  Do  not 
fall  on  the  wrong  model.  Do  not  have  a  false  conception  of  the  di- 
rection in  which  you  are  to  seek  your  true  manhood.  It  is  not  this : 
Be  as  perfect  as  God  is.  That  is  a  wrong  interpretation  of  it.  It  is 
not  this:  Be  just  as  full  and  just  as  complete  in  perfection  as  God  is. 
It  is  this  :  Take  the  divine  notion  of  what  perfection  is,  and  attempt 
to  be  perfect  according  to  that  notion,  and  not  according  to  the  mere 
question  of  fullness,  largeness,  symmetry,  and  so  on.  Look  at  the 
context,  and  you  will  see  that  this  is  the  true  construction  which  I 
have  given. 

"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou  shaltlove  thy  neighbor  and 
bate  thine  enemy.  But  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that 
curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  which  despite- 
fully  use  you,  and  persecute  you ;  that  ye  may  be  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven ;  for  he  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the 
good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  For  if  ye  love  them 
which  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye  ?  do  not  even  the  publicans  [the 
worst  sort  of  men]  the  same  ?  And  if  ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what 
do  ye  more  than  others  ?  do  not  even  the  publicans  so  ?  Be  ye  therefore 
perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect." 

That  is  the  way  in  which  he  is  perfect.  Disinterestedness  is  the 
perfection  which  is  meant.  He  makes  his  sun  to  rise  upon  the  just 
and  upon  the  unjust.  He  loves  the  unlovely.  He  does  good  to  the 
undeserving.  And  when  you  undertake  to  be  perfect,  remember  the 
way  in  which  God  himself  is  j^erfect,  and  be  perfect  according  to  that 
manner.  It  is  an  exhortation  to  disinterested  benevolence  as  a  su- 
preme ideal,  both  of  divine  perfection,  and  of  individual  perfection. 

A  little  more  lengthy  consideration  of  this  will,  perhaps,  give  us 
a  power  of  inference  which  we  could  not  otherwise  get. 

You  have  heard  that  it  has  been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor, because  there  is  good  reason  for  it.  Either  he  is  lovable,  or  he 
loves  you ;  or  he  has  performed  kindly  offices  toward  you.  There 
you  have  a  motive.  You  have  been  taught  to  hate  your  enemy  be- 
cause he  is  ugly  ;  because  he  is  unjust ;  because  he  stirs  you  up  wick- 
edly and  wrongfully.  And  there  is  a  motive  and  a  reason.  But 
Christ  says,  "  I  declare  that  you  are  to  love  your  enemies." 


GOD'S  disinti:ei!st£;dni:ss.  11 

How  can  a  man  love  his  enemy  ?  He  is  wrong ;  and  can  a  man  love 
that  which  is  wrong  ?  He  is  directing  that  wrong  so  that  it  becomes 
keenly  appreciated  by  me  because  it  is  measured  by  my  own  sensitive 
selfness,  if  not  selfishness ;  and  are  we  commanded  to  love  a  man  so  ? 
He  maligns  me.  He  follows  me.  He  curtails  my  comfort.  He  de- 
stroys my  usefulness.  He  embitters  my  life.  He  vexes  my  friends. 
He  weakens  my  standing.  He  throws  around  about  me  a  malignant 
glamour.  And  what  motive,  what  inspiration  is  there  that  shall  en- 
able me  to  love  any  man  who  is,  in  his  declared  conduct,  and  in  his 
whole  attitude,  hostile  to  me  ?  How  can  a  man  love  hatefulness  ? — 
especially  hatefulness  active,  and  addressing  itself  directly  to  me  ?  It 
cannot  be  done. 

Yet  Christ  says,  "  Love  not  those  that  are  lovely  alone :  love  the 
unlovely ;  and  love  them  in  their  most  active  form.  Unlovely  peo- 
ple that  are  brought  right  home  to  you  in  personal  contact  and 
conflict — love  them.  Bless  them  that  curse  you.  Do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you.  Those  that  have  in  them  that  hate  which  is  of  the 
fire  of  hell,  and  which  shall  consume  and  burn  and  destroy — do  good 
to  them.  And  do  it  that  you  may  become  like  God ;  that  is,  that 
you  may  become  the  children  of  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven." 

And  in  order  that  he  may  not  be  misunderstood,  he  says,  "  This 
is  what  God  is  doing.  He  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on 
the  good  [in  his  career  over  the  world,  the  sun  sees  many  more  men 
that  do  not  deserve  his  blessing  than  those  that  do,  and  still  he  shines 
on  with  a  bounty  of  light,  and  has  done  so  through  ages] ;  and  he 
sendeth  his  rain,  not  according  to  men's  deserts,  but  on  the  just  and 
on  the  unjust  alike." 

Men  are  accustomed,  when  they  state  their  distinctions,  keepino- 
up  their  ideas  of  moral  government,  to  say  that  God  does  send  his 
natural  bounties  on  men  without  any  regard  to  character ;  but  that 
he  cannot  be  understood  to  send  his  personal  favors  and  his  spiritual 
favors  upon  men  without  any  regard  to  character.  But  that  is  not 
the  question  at  all.  The  Saviour  is  endeavoring  to  teach  this  point : 
"  When  you  attempt  to  form  an  ideal  of  manhood  and  true  charac- 
ter, you  must  take  God's  character  as  a  pattern.  You  are  to  love 
that  which  is  hateful  and  that  which  is  oppugnant  to  you.  You  are 
to  bless  those  that  curse  you,  and  forgive  those  that  hate  you.  Ideally, 
you  must  raise  up  in  your  mind  a  picture  of  what  God's  character  is, 
and  you  must  attempt  to  be  perfect  according  to  that  character." 

This  is  not  a  delineation  of  the  divine  moral  government,  but  a 
declaration  of  what  the  constituent  elements  of  the  divine  character 
are.  And  that  declaration  is  that  those  elements  are  disinterested 
goodness,  divine  benevolence,  and  kindness  to  the  undeserving.  That 


12  GOD'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS. 

is  the  type  of  God's  character — if  there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  a 
type  spoken  of  where  there  is  but  one. 

Here,  then,  we  have,  by  the  hand  of  Christ  himself,  an  authorita- 
tive, and  explicit,  and  incontrovertible  declaration,  that  this  is  an 
attribute  of  the  divine  nature,  and  that  it  is  the  very  point  in  the 
divine  nature  which  we  are  to  recognize  as  the  model  for  our  imita- 
tion. God's  nature,  in  other  words,  is  such  that  he  does  good,  not 
because  men  are  good,  and  not  because  they  deserve  that  which  is 
good,  but  simply  because  He  is  good.  And  it  is  this  that  I  want  to 
dwell  upon  at  some  length. 

God  does  not  love  men  because  they  are  amiable.  He  does  not 
confer  gifts  upon  men  because  they  deserve  them,  or  have  eai-ned 
them.  He  confers  them  because  the  fullness  of  bis  own  nature  needs 
expression.  It  is  the  outward  pressure  in  himself  of  vast  love  and 
beneficence  that  wants  expression.  And  he  sends  that  love  and 
beneficence  abroad.  He  does  good  to  people  in  heaven  and  on 
earth,  and  will,  to  all  eternity,  because  there  is  such  a  fullness  of  this 
need  in  himself,  working  out  in  the  happiness  and  benefaction  of  his 
creatures. 

Can  we  understand  this  ?  Yes.  We  see  it  in  life.  The  highest 
form  of  any  faculty  is  that  in  which  the  force  of  the  feelings  gives 
it  an  automatic  development.  That  is  a  low  condition  of  faculty 
which  requires  to  be  solicited  and  brought  out  by  something  that  is 
presented  to  it.  And  in  men,  where  any  part  of  their  nature  is  highly 
organized ;  where  they  have,  as  we  say,  eminent  gifts  ;  where  they 
have  first-class  endowments,  the  token  of  it  is  that  the  faculty,  or 
power,  or  whatever  you  choose  to  call  it,  is  in  such  a  condition  that 
it  does  not  need  any  outward  solicitation  to  develop  it — that  it  de- 
velops itself  from  the  nature  that  is  in  it. 

Thus,  for  example,  there  is  in  some  natures  such  a  large  organ- 
ized tendency  to  music  that  they  develop  music,  not  because  some 
one  asks  them  to,  not  because  if  they  do  it  may  give  them  fame  or 
reputation  ;  but  because  it  is  there,  and  demands  expression.  It  does 
not  nee<f  outward  solicitation.  They  think  music  ;  they  sing.  Why  ? 
Because  it  is  in  them  to  do  it.  Because  they  want  to,  in  themselves. 
Tliere  is  many  a  person  who,  if  you  were  to  put  him  on  an  island  in 
the  ocean,  where  there  was  no  soul  but  himself,  would  be  thinking 
choruses  and  symphonies.  He  could  not  help  it.  This  is  something 
that  works  out  from  the  inside.  It  is  inspiration.  It  is  automatic. 
It  is  self-moving. 

So  it  is  with  poetry.  There  are  many  men  who  write  poetry,  just  as 
farmers  raise  corn,  and  send  it  to  market.  Some  think  that  they  will 
make  money  by  it ;  some  think  that  they  will  make  fame  by  it ;  and 


OOD^S  DISIKTEBESTEDNIJSS.  13 

they  sweat,  and  tug,  and  make  poetry  by  the  hardest  There  are 
others  through  whose  whole  lives  there  is  a  tinge  of  poetic  color  in 
almost  every  thought ;  and  at  times  there  will  be  hours  of  rapture. 
They  cannot  help  it.  They  see  visions,  and  they  dream  dreams  ;  and 
their  thoughts  flow  musically,  and  almost  in  numbers.  We  call 
them  inspired.     We  say  that  they  are  men  of  genius. 

What  do  you  mean  by  men  of  genius  ?  I  mean  this  :  that  where 
a  man  has  any  faculty  that  is  carried  above  the  middle  line,  so  that 
it  is  self-moved,  he  has  genius.  Genius,  and  genius  only,  enables  a 
man  to  be  creative.  If  any  man  has  faculties  that  are  automatic  in 
their  action,  and  that  develop  themselves,  not  by  outward  solicita- 
tion, but  according  to  some  inward  invitation  or  want,  he  has  in  him 
the  elements  of  an  inventor.  Many  persons  invent  because  they  are 
asked  to,  or  because  they  are  stirred  up  to.  Others  invent  because 
invention  is  in  them.      It  is  their  nature  to  be  fruitful  in  that  way. 

Now,  many  men  are  benevolent  because  they  are  provoked  to 
benevolence  ;  and  many  others  are  benevolent  because  they  are  so 
full  of  kindness  and  love  that  these  qualities  flow  from  them  steadily* 
as  silver  streams  flow  out  of  the  sides  of  mountains. 

So  on  persons  that  are  called  good-natured,  good  dinners  have  a 
pleasing  influence.  Good  luck  has  a  very  cheering  influence  on 
them.  Some  rare  stroke  of  fortune  comes  to  them,  and  they  are  emi- 
nently good-natured.  And  you  can  tell  the  reason  why.  But  there 
are  good-natured  men  about  whom  you  never  think  of  asking  the 
reason  why.  They  are  always  so.  They  cannot  be  any  diflferent. 
The  current  runs  spontaneously  in  that  direction  in  them.  They 
cannot  help  it. 

Some  men  are  benevolent  at  intervals.  Some  are  benevolent 
when  the  proper  time  comes  round,  and  they  are  never  benevolent  at 
any  other  times.  But  there  are  persons  who  are  bathed  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  benevolence,  and  are  never  out  of  it.  Benevolence  is 
in  them  by  original  organization  and  tendency. 

This  is  what  we  call  inspiration,  or  genius.  It  is  a  certain  full- 
ness of  nature  that  leads  action  to  be  from  within  outward,  and, 
from  the  reason  of  inwardness,  so  full  and  sensitive  that  it  shows 
itself  in  outward  action.  It  is  the  highest  conception  among  men. 
There  is  no  faculty  that  men  love  to  praise  more  than  genius.  It 
stands  superior  to  all  other  conditions  of  the  faculties.  And  it 
points  to  this  conception  of  the  divine  nature.  It  points  to  the 
same  thing  in  God — a  Being  whose  attributes  are  so  full  and  so  sen- 
sitive that  they  do  not  need  the  solicitation  of  outward  circumstances. 
The  divine  Heart  pours  forth  its  bounty  from  reasons  that  are  in 
itself — from  its  infinite  fullness,  its  infinite  necessity,  and  not  from 


14  GOB'S  DISINTJEJRHSTJBBNUSS 

its  self-love,  as  we  do  in  a  lower  sphere,  and  according  to  the  laws 
of  that  lower  sphere. 

The  imperfect  moral  conditions  in  ns  know  something  of  what  it 
is  to  have  spontaneity  and  overflow  of  life  and  inspiration  ;  and  car- 
rying that  ideal  up,  and  enlarging  it  to  the  full  measure  of  all  the 
attributes  of  God,  we  perceive  that  he  sits  in  the  heaven,  eternally 
willing,  thinking,  governing,  by  the  outflow  of  a  nature  righteous, 
pure,  holy,  just  and  good,  and  moved,  not  by  argument,  nor  by  per- 
suasion, nor  by  inspection,  but  by  an  infinite  necessity  in  himself  to 
pour  out  the  goodness  and  the  fullness  that  is  in  him. 

Look  at  the  thought  of  the  Apocalypse,  where  the  throne  is  de- 
scribed, and  where  it  is  said  that  out  from  under  it  proceeds  the 
river  of  life,  and  that  on  either  side  of  it  are  trees  whose  leaves  are 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  It  is  as  if  it  had  been  said,  "  Thc^ 
life  of  God  (for  Throne  means  God)  who  sits  there,  flows  like  a  river.''' 

A  river,  according  to  our  way  of  looking  at  it,  is  that  which  has 
in  itself  its  own  motion,  as  it  were.  Its  power  is  not  derived  from 
the  will  of  man.  It  is  not  the  miller  that  coaxes  the  river  to  flow  by 
his  mill :  it  is  the  river  that  coaxes  the  miller  to  set  himself  down  on 
its  bank  with  his  mill.  It  is  its  nature  which  gives  it  automatic  power. 
It  has  its  rise  in  the  mountains,  and  streams  flow  down  to  form  it, 
and  it  has  a  power  of  its  own  by  which  it  flows  on  and  pours  out  its 
waters  into  the  ocean  or  the  lake.  In  summer  and  in  winter,  through 
all  time,  it  pursues  its  course  from  a  force  which  is  inherent  in  itself. 
And  so  through  ages  the  old  Amazon  has  poured  its  mighty  flood 
into  the  Atlantic ;  and  the  Mississippi  has  emptied  its  vast  volumes 
into  the  Gulf;  and  the  St,  Lawrence  has  flowed  into  the  upper  ocean, 
melting  myriads  of  tons  of  ice.  And  they  are  forever  flowing.  And 
God  sits  with  an  inexhaustible  stream  of  benevolence  flowing  out 
from  under  his  throne.  All  that  vast  treasure  of  sympathy  and 
love  ;  all  things  which  go  to  constitute  the  highest  Fatherhood,  are 
represented  as  coming  forth  from  under  the  throne  of  God.  And 
all  those  things  that  grow  on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  life,  and 
whose  leaves  are  said  to  be  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  are  repre- 
sented as  issuing  from  beneath  the  throne. 

Or,  take  the  favorite  image  of  our  God  as  a  Sun.  It  is  said  of 
Christ,  "  He  is  the  light  of  the  world."  Consider  that  the  sun  is  not 
an  orb  that  shines  because  it  is  solicited.  Consider  that  fire  is  not 
struck  out  of  him  as  men  strike  fire  out  of  a  flint.  We  do  not  get  flame 
from  the  sun  as  men  get  flame  by  rubbing  a  match.  The  sun  is  a 
globe  of  heat  and  fire  that,  in  an  incessant  stream,  pours  out 
and  radiates  from  itself  these  boundless  stores  of  light  and  heat. 


GOD'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS.  15 

And  God  forever  radiates,  sends  from  himself,  from  the  necessity  of 
His  nature,  these  boundless  stores  of  beneficence. 

This  is  the  Being  that  presides  central  throughout  the  whole 
universe.  He  is  not  One  that  is  to  be  conceived  of  according 
to  the  penurious,  beggarly  notion  of  an  earthly  monarch.  He 
is  not  one  who  needs  to  be  approached,  to  be  worshiped,  to  be  so- 
licited, in  order  to  be  kept  good-natured.  He  is  not  one  that  gives 
upon  a  consideration  of  the  desert  of  the  recipient.  The  true  idea 
is,  that  God  is  a  Being  who  sits  in  the  center  of  the  universe,  with 
a  nature  so  full  of  all  bounty  that  it  has  an  endless  flow,  and  is  like 
a  river  that,  through  summer  and  winter,  and  through  ages  unum- 
bered,  moves  steadily  on.  He  is  the  Regent,  the  Center  of  all  things ; 
and  from  him  all  things  proceed. 

When,  therefore,  we  are  commanded  to  be  like  God,  it  is  not 
meant  that  we  should  be  as  large  as  he  is,  nor  as  wise  as  he  is.  It 
is  not  even  meant  that  we  shall  be  symmetrical  as  he  is.  It  is  not 
meant  that  we  shall  be  perfect  as  God  is  in  any  artistic  sense.  This 
is  what  is  meant :  If  you  would  imitate  God  aright,  remember  that 
he  loves  unlovely  beings  ;  remember  that  he  forgives  hateful  folks, 
who  do  not  deserve  forgiveness  ;  remember  that  it  is  not  the  bounti- 
ful alone  to  whom  God  gives  ;  remember  that  the  stingy  old  miser 
receives  the  rain  and  the  sunlight  as  much  as  the  philanthropist. 

I  think  everybody  feels,  at  once,  "  Why,  these  do  not  deserve  it !" 
No  ;  but  God's  nature  is  such  that  he  outpours  his  own  feelings,  so 
that  the  good  and  the  bad  get  his  bounty ;  so  that  the  just  and  the 
unjust  get  it.  And  you  cannot  get  away  from  it.  There  it  is  de- 
clared by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  the  pattern  which  you  are  to 
imitate  is  God's  nature  in  this  thing,  that  he  makes  his  sun  to  rise 
on  the  go-  d  and  on  the  bad,  and  that  he  sends  his  rain  on  the  just 
and  on  the  unjust  alike. 

The  doctrine  to  which  I  beg  to  call  your  attention,  is  that  the 
truest  and  noblest  conception  of  moral  quality  is  one  that  has  the 
reason  of  its  being  and  action  in  itself,  and  not  in  that  which  is  out- 
side of  it.     It  is  disinterested,  in  other  words. 

I  shall  not  now  risk  the  strength  of  tliis  subject  by  undertaking 
to  square  it  by  the  proper  pattern  of  the  schools.  I  shall  not  qualify 
these  statements  by  saying  that  God  has  a  personal  partiality  which 
proceeds  on  a  divine  pattern,  in  other  words,  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  show  that  God,  in  forming  friendships,  in  selecting  his  personal 
companions  from  among  men,  if  I  may  so  say,  does  it  on  the  divine 
principle  of  moral  loveliness.  I  suggest  that  there  is  a  subject  in 
this  direction,  but  that  ought  to  be  treated  by  itself;  and  you  might 
better  have  this  other  side  exaggerated^  than  not  to  have  it  in  your 


16  GOD'S  I>I8INTEEESTEDNESS. 

mind  at  all,  or  to  have  it  there  in  a  form  that  is  comparatively  weak. 

I  remark,  then,  in  view  of  this  explanation  . 

1.  This  is  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of  God's  nature  which  was 
thought  of  by  our  Saviour,  which  he  emphasized,  and  which  he  held 
up  for  us  to  imitate — goodness  from  his  own  love  of  goodness.  We 
cheat  ourselves  because  our  ideal  of  God  is  erroneous.  We  fall  into 
endless  mistakes  in  regard  to  human  conduct  because  we  fail  to  per- 
ceive this  peculiar  feature  of  God's  character — that  he  does  kindnesses, 
that  he  acts  kindly,  because  he  himself  hungers  to  be  kind.  It  is  the 
efflux  and  proper  expression  of  his  own  nature.  And  this  kindness, 
this  goodness,  is  to  be  in  us. 

Compare  this  with  the  notions  which  are  prevalent.  What  is 
goodness  ?  An  ascetic  will  tell  you  that  the  proper  idea  of  the 
Christian  state  is  to  deny  yourself  in  every  possible  way  ;  to  mortify 
the  flesh,  and  the  passions  and  appetites  of  it ;  to  circumscribe  your 
enjoyment ;  not  to  be  seduced  by  any  evils ;  to  live  in  a  state  of 
perpetual  cross-bearing  and  self-denial,  with  tears  and  groans  and 
anguish,  that  you  may  at  last  be  found  fit  to  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God.  It  is  false/  It  is  a  lie/  and  the  worst  kind  of  a  lie,  be- 
cause it  is  against  the  genius  of  the  universe ;  because  it  is  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  very  marrow  of  the  Gospel — if  men  are,  in  God's  provi- 
dence, ordained  to  work  out  the  problem.  Our  sins  and  troubles 
are  to  bring  tears  and  sorrows,  to  be  sure ;  but  it  is  not  the  distinc- 
tive characteristic  of  Christianity,  that  a  man  is  to  have  an  ascetic 
love  for  pain  and  sorrow,  as  though  they  were  good  in  themselves. 
"  Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  who 
lives  and  administers  by  a  disinterested  kindness,  which  is  the  pat- 
tern that  men  are  to  follow. 

There  are  many  who  think  that  being  pious  signifies  a  cold 
scrupulosity — an  exact  circumspection.  And  this  idea  is  united  to 
another  idea,  of  self-culture.  That  men  shall  keep  themselves  un- 
spotted from  the  world  ;  that  they  shall  be  radiant  all  the  time, 
growing  brighter  and  brighter ;  and  that  they  shall  build  themselves 
up  in  a  certain  symmetrical  and  stately  strength  and  excellence — 
that  they  think  is  piety.  It  may  be  one  of  the  things  which  will 
make  piety  stronger  ;  it  may  give  a.  man  a  greater  power  in  using 
himself,  as  undoubtedly  it  does  ;  but  that  which  makes  a  man 
Christlike  is  not  the  fact  that  he  is  doing  so  much  for  himself,  that 
he  is  building  himself  up  in  various  right  things,  and  ridding  himself 
of  various  wrong  things  :  it  is  that  he  is  perfect,  as  his  Father  in 
vheaven  is,  who  makes  His  sun  to  shine  on  the  good  and  on  the  bad, 
and  who  sends  His  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  Disinterested 
love,  disinterested  goodness — that  is  the  pattern. 


GOD'S  DI81NTEBE8TEDNESS.  17 

There  are  others  whose  idea  of  piety  is  largely  shaped  by  the 
esthetic  feeling.  Nothing  seems  to  them  to  be  good  that  is  not  sym- 
metrical. Nothing  seems  to  be  good  to  them  that  is  not  harmo- 
nious. Taste,  rather  than  benevolence  is  their  divinity  ;  and  every 
fault  disgusts  them.  They  are  apt  to  be  full  of  class-selfishness. 
They  are  apt  to  separate  themselves  from  men.  They  are  apt  to 
have  the  Pharisaism  of  the  pew,  and  to  be  satisfied  only  with  walk- 
ing in  the  midst  of  things  that  are  well-ordered  and  beautiful.  I 
love  beauty  and  regularity,  too,  where  they  are  under  the  guidance 
and  inspiration  of  a  disinterested  benevolence  ;  but  where  they  are 
substitutes  for  it,  I  abhor  them.  I  would  as  soon  undertake  to  raise 
my  harvest  by  the  pale  moonbeams  instead  of  the  glory  and  fervor 
of  the  sun,  as  to  undertake  to  raise  anything  like  character,  or  give 
it  anything  like  power  in  the  world,  by  the  esthetic  principle.  As 
an  adjuvant,  as  a  collateral,  wielded  by  the  hand  of  power,  it  is 
good  ;  but  of  itself  it  is  not  piety — though  many  make  it  to  be. 
Benevolence  is  the  center  of  true  Christian  character.  Christian 
character  is  an  automatic  state  of  benevolence.  It  is  a  state  of  benev- 
olence so  full  that  it  overflows,  not  upon  consideration  and  measure, 
but  as  a  lamp  sheds  its  light  abroad. 

Do  you  suppose  a  candle,  standing  in  the  window,  says,  "  I  will 
look  down  the  road,  and  if  I  see  a  miserable,  lone  fellow  travelino-^  I 
will  not  shine  upon  him"  ?  No,  it  says,  "  I  will  treat  all  alike."  The 
first  that  comes  over  the  hill  is  father  Good-heart ;  and  the  candle 
shines  along  the  road  and  lights  him  on  his  way.  And  how  little 
that  candle  wastes  its  light !  It  is  a  guide  to  this  wayfaring  man.  And 
it  does  not  say,  "  It  is  for  me  to  be  just,"  but  shines  without  regard 
to  any  such  question  as  that.  Next  comes  a  hard,  stingy  man,  who 
is  traveling  ten  miles  at  a  shilling's  expense  to  collect  a  six2:)ence 
from  some  poor  widow.  And  the  candle  says,  "  Yes,  that  is  the  road. 
That  is  the  way.  Travel  on."  Next  comes  a  poor  orphan  boy,  cry- 
ing because  he  is  afraid  that  he  shall  be  belated  at  night ;  and  the 
candle  shines  for  him,  to  cheer  him  on  his  way.  Next  comes  a 
robust  shepherd  boy,  whistling  with  joy  ;  and  the  candle  shines  for 
him.  And  everybody  who  walks  that  road  gets  the  guidance  of 
that  candle  without  discrimination.  They  are  all  human  beino-s 
needing  guidance.  Not  one  of  them  deserves  it ;  the  best  of  them 
have  forfeited  their  right  to  it ;  but  the  candle  shines  for  them  all. 
And  so  the  sun  sends  its  light  abroad  over  the  world. 

This  is  to  be  the  supreme  ideal  of  a  true  manhood  in  Christ 
Jesus.  A  man  that  is  intellectually  perfect,  and  therefore  doc- 
trinally  correct,  and  stands  forever  turning  the  wheel  of  some  eccle- 
siastical machine,  grinding  out  dogmas  and  propositions  and  prin- 


18  GOB'S  DISINTEBESTEDNJSSS. 

ciples  and  truths  for  mankind,  is  not  ministering  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  race.  Men  do  not  feed  on  such  shadows  as  these.  He 
has  Christ  who  is  perfect  as  his  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect.  Benevo- 
lence is  the  genius  of  perfection. 

Oh  !  how  far  are  the  surly-browed  and  wrinkled-foreheaded  men 
that  with  fierce  zeal  and  intense  determination  push  the  right 
although  it  goes  like  a  sword,  from  being  God-men,  after  the  pattern 
of  Christ  Jesus ! 

2.  There  is  a  relation  that  this  idea  sustains  to  the  popular 
notions  of  justice  which  require  a  consideration.  There  are  many 
who  are  confounded  on  this  subject.  They  have  a  notion  about 
justice  that  I  think  will  never  be  found  outside  of  the  bounds  of  this 
world,  as  it  is  mechanical  and  physical.  As  justice  has  been  ad" 
ministered — and  it  has  been  administered  in  very  imperfect  ways — 
it  has  generally  followed  a  simple  line  of  action  proceeding  upon 
intellectual  perceptions,  in  setting  apart  men,  right  and  left,  as  good 
and  bad.  Justice  to  the  good  requires  that  they  have  prosperity ;  and 
justice  to  the  bad  requires  that  they  be  unprosperous.  This  has  been 
the  line  of  demarcation.  This  treating  men  according  to  their  deserts 
has  been  the  supreme  idea  of  justice.  It  has  acted  upon  the  plan  of 
giving  to  good  men  what  they  deserve,  and  of  giving  to  bad  men 
what  they  deserve. 

Now,  I  aver  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  justice  according  to 
this  idea.  You  do  not  know  what  a  good  man  deserves,  if  he  deserves 
anything.  You  cannot  measure  it.  You  do  not  know  what  a  bad 
man  deserves.  You  cannot  measure  it.  You  would  not  have  me 
treat  that  man  other  than  strictly  according  to  his  deserts  ?  But 
can  you  tell  whether  there  is  in  that  man's  state  anything  that  he  has 
inherited?  Can  you  tell  what  ancestral  strains  have  come  down 
into  that  man's  nature  ?  Can  you  tell  what  infelicities  there  have 
been  in  that  man's  education,  which  gave  him  warp  and  bias  ?  Can 
you  tell  me  what  expei-ience  has  struck  into  his  being  and  stained 
him  through  and  through  ?  Can  you  tell  what  are  the  trials  of  that 
man's  heart  ?  Can  you  tell  how  hard  it  is  for  him  to  overcome  the 
passions  and  appetites  and  circumstances  that  tempt  him  to  be  bad  ? 
Can  you  tell  what  is  the  secret  spring  of  his  action  ?  How  little  do 
you  know  of  his  motive,  and  of  the  operation  of  that  motive  I  And 
yet,  you  talk  of  giving  to  that  man  according  to  his  deserts.  You 
have  not  the  first  element  of  judgment  in  his  case.  You  know 
nothing  about  it. 

You  remember  how  Christ  Jesus,  in  contrasting  the  Pharisees 
who  seemed  to  be  first-rate  people,  were  men  well-to-do  in  the 
world,  and  were  overgrown  from  excessive  indulgence  in  the  luxu- 


GOD'S  JDISINTEEESTEDNESS.  19 

ries  of  life,  but  who  were  exemplary,  and  about  as  deserving  aa 
anybody  in  the  community — you  remember  how  Christ  in  contrast- 
ing them  with  persons  in  the  street,  that  were  steeped  in  vice  and 
crime,  and  that  seemed  ready  to  dissolve  like  ichor  into  the  abyss 
of  hell,  and  deserved  nothing  but  reproach  and  condemnation, 
apparently,  said, 

"  The  publicans  and  the  harlots  go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  you." 

How  little  can'  we  administer  justice  in  one  case  or  another ! 
How  far  are"^the  thoughts  of  God  from  our  thoughts  ! 

"  As  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher  than 
your  ways,  and  my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts." 

On  the  other  hand,  if  justice  be  kindness  suitably  administered, 
then  there  can  be  very  little  doubt  as  to  the  reality  of  justice,  and 
very  little  doubt  as  to  its  benefit.  What  is  justice  but  the  adminis- 
tration of  kindness  in  the  way  that  shall  suit  each  man's  necessity, 
and  his  necessity  in  his  social  liabilities  and  relationships?  That  which 
is  drawing  every  man  with  love,  and  which  is  drawing  him  with  that 
which  love  inspires,  and  which  every  man  needs  in  himself  and  in  the 
relations  which  he  sustains  to  his  fellow-men — that  is  justice.  The 
administration  of  benevolence  is  justice.  It  is  the  tendency  to  do 
good  to  a  man,  first  from  a  consideration  of  what  he  is,  and  second 
from  a  consideration  of  the  relationship  in  which  he  stands. 

Although,  oftentimes,  justice  may  take  on  a  pain-giving  form,  it 
is  not  on  that  account  a  malign  feeling.  It  is  necessary,  not  unfre- 
quently  to  give  pain  to  one  that  you  love. 

I  remember  very  well,  when  I  used  to  come  in  from  my  sports, 
soiled  and  smouched  (for  I  did  not  spare  myself),  and  was  to  be 
brought  into  decent  society,  and  it  was  necessary  for  the  sisterly 
hand  to  rub  the  dirt  from  my  face,  I  never  liked  it.  And  I  know 
that  when  my  hair,  that  went  with  the  winds,  and  played  with  every 
one  of  them,  had  to  be  smoothed  out,  I  never  liked  the  passage  of 
the  comb  through  it — although  they  were  seeking  beauty.  (I  hope 
they  found  it !)  It  was  done  with  the  utmost  kindness.  It  was  done 
from  the  best  feeling,  by  the  nurse,  or  the  sister,  or  the  mother ;  but 
to  me  it  was  vexation  and  torment — in  a  small  way.  I  never  liked 
it.  When  I  had  committed  any  ofiense  against  brother  or  sister, 
and  it  became  necessary  for  me  to  have  my  moral  sense  awakened 
in  order  that  I  might  see  that  I  had  violated  the  law  of  kindness, 
and  feel  those  mysterious  tinglings,  which  were  eye-openers,  that  I 
might  see  the  way  of  love  which  I  had  missed,  and  come  back  into 
it,  these  things  were  not  pleasant  to  me. 

"No  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous,  but  grievous; 
nevertheless!,  afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness." 

And  all  the  Avay  through  the  household  there  is  this  infliction  of 


20  GOD'S  DISINTUEHSTIJDNUSS. 

pain.  There  is  nothing  in  this  world  that  inflicts  so  much  pain,  and 
saves  so  much,  as  love.  It  is  the  judicious  administration  of  restraint, 
it  is  the  judicious  administration  of  pungency,  it  is  the  judicious  ad- 
ministration of  enforced  duty  and  instruction,  that  educates  the  child. 

The  great-bosomed  mother,  the  great  radiant  face  of  a  love  watch- 
ing that  pain  shall  not  go  a  bit  too  far,  but  still  pressing  it,  and  still 
insisting  upon  it,  says,  "  My  dear  child,  I  will  not  suffer  you  to  grow 
up  so.  I  cannot  live  and  see  you  become  bad".  My  darling,  you 
shall  not  be  bad.  By  all  the  love  that  is  in  me,  and  by  all  the  hope 
that  is  in  me,  and  by  all  the  prophecy  of  a  mother's  heart,  you  shall 
not  be  bad.  I  will  cry  with  you,  but  cry  you  shall  1  It  is  neces- 
sary to  make  you  sweeter  and  better  and  nobler."  Is  not  that  justice? 

There  is  another  way  of  estimating  justice.  "  Who  is  this  ?  Fetch 
him  up.  He  has  been  here  half  a  dozen  times  before.  Drunk  again, 
eh  ?  Here,  officer,  give  him  four  months.  Public  purity  must  be 
preserved.  It  is  time  for  us  to  go  to  dinner.  Send  the  others  up 
three  months  apiece.  Never  mind,  I  will  hear  those  cases  after  din- 
ner." That  is  justice,  is  it?  Men  say,  "  We  must  keep  up  the  dig- 
nity of  the  law ;  we  must  see  that  authority  is  not  trodden  under 
foot ;  we  must  maintain  morality  in  the  community."  I  say  that  it 
is  hideous  injustice.  I  say  that  selfishness  and  indifference  to  human 
character  and  suffering  are  infernal.  And  nothing  can  change  the 
nature  of  things.  He  that  does  not  care  in  his  heart,  though  he  does 
the  right  thing,  is  unjust.  Where  a  judge  commits  a  criminal ;  where 
he  strikes  the  law  down  upon  the  wrongdoer,  and  says,  "  He 
ought  to  have  it,  and  I  am  glad  that  he  has  got  it,"  it  is  infernal. 
It  is  not  justice,  even  though  the  man  may  merit  stripes,  and  though 
it  may  be  best  that  he  should  have  them.  There  is  not,  in  God's 
universe,  any  man  that  has  a  right  to  put  his  hand  upon  another 
man  except  it  be  the  hand  of  love.  He  that  has  no  love  has  no  right 
to  touch  anybody. 

God,  himself,  in  the  infinite  expansive  government  of  the  universe, 
sits  regent,  as  the  God  of  love,  saying,  "  Be  perfect  as  I  am.  And  I 
tell  all  mankind  what  I  am  by  making  my  sun  to  rise  upon  the  good 
and  the  bad,  and  by  sending  my  rain  upon  the  just  and  upon  the 
unjust.     Be  ye  perfect  in  that  way." 

If  this  be  the  true  notion  of  justice — the  notion  of  love  educating 
men,  of  love  using  whatever  is  needful  for  men's  education,  of  love 
seeking  to  administer  for  men  for  their  good,  in  all  their  relations ; 
that  is,  with  a  wise  regard  to  all  their  necessities  which  spring  out 
of  their  social  connections  in  society — if  this  be  the  true  notion  of 
justice,  ought  it  not  to  revolutionize  the  literature,  and  amend  the 
thought  and  procedure  of  almost  all  mankind  ? 


GOD'S  BISINTEBESTEBNESS.  21 

Now,  justice  is  vengeful.  Now,  justice  springs  from  blood.  Now, 
justice  helps  that  which  is  animal  in  man.  Now,  justice  is  the  un- 
purged,  uncleansed,  unripened,  blind  impulse  of  the  beast  that 
is  yet  in  mankind.  But  justice  in  God  is  the  .  efflux .  and  the 
power  and  the  wisdom  and  the  goodness  of  love,  shaping  men 
out  of  poverty,  and  out  of  imperfection,  and  out  of  sin ;  molding 
them ;  and  bringing  them  out  into  the  bright  and  glorious  image  of 
the  God  of  love.  And  every  man  under  the  divine  administration 
has  a  right  to  that  justice.  He  has  a  right  to  as  much  kindness  and 
to  as  much  goodness  as  he  can  profit  by  consistently  with  all  the  re- 
lations which  he  sustains  to  the  mass  of  society. 

The  application  of  this  thought,  which  is  made  by  our  Saviour 
himself,  is  one  that  ought  to  be  made  by  us  a  thousand  times  where 
we  make  it  once — its  application,  I  mean,  to  the  forgiveness  of  men. 
What  is  the  ground  of  forgiveness  ?  It  does  not  lie  in  the  recipient 
at  all.  It  lies  in  the  giver.  •  We  forgive  simply  because  it  is  the 
nature  of  goodness  to  do  it.  Kindness,  love — this  does  not  take  any 
oflense.  It  has  nothing  to  avenge.  It  is  a  spontaneous  outflow  of 
generous  feeling.  Love  seeks  to  remedy  evils.  When  it  sees  a  fault 
or  a  mistake  or  a  sin,  it  seeks  to  efface  it.  God  forgives  men.  Why  ? 
Because  he  loves  to  do  it.  He  does  it  for  his  own  sake.  Misinter- 
preting that  expression,  old  theologians  supposed  that  God  forgave 
men  for  his  own  sake  just  as  a  king  put  a  crown  on  his  head  for  his 
own  sake.  They  gave  it  a  monarchical  significance.  But  I  believe 
that  God  forgives  for  his  own  sake  in  a  psychological  sense.  A 
generous  man  gives  away  handful  after  handful  of  money,  why  ? 
Because  the  act  bounds  back  with  pleasure  to  him  inwardly.  For- 
giveness ig  the  instinctive  action  of  a  true  generosity  in  a  man.  Why 
do  some  men  speak  with  figures  of  beauty  ?  Because  it  is  their  duty 
to  do  it  ?  No  ;  but  because  they  cannot  help  themselves.  They  see 
visions  in  the  air,  and  they  paint  pictures  unconsciously.  In  their 
nature  they  do  it  because  their  nature  tends  to  act  in  that  way. 
Why  does  God  forgive?  Because  it  is  his  nature  to  forgive.  And 
he  forgives  perpetually.     He  loves  to  forgive. 

Well,  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  all  stand  on  an  equal  footino-? 
No,  but  the  condition  docs  not  lie  in  desert.  Nobody  is  benefited 
by  being  forgiven  unless  he  takes  the  bounty.  The  mere  act  of  kind 
feeling  does  not  do  anybody  any  good. 

After  many  wanderings  I  come  back  to  the  place  of  my  birth.  I 
have  lost  all  trace  of  my  friends.  .My  father  and  mother  were  livino- 
when  I  left  home  and  became  a  sailor  boy ;  but  I  have  lost  commu- 
nication Avith  them.  They  have  moved  out  of  the  city.  As  near  as 
I  can  learn,  they  are  in  such  a  near  country  town.    And,  foot-bare,  I 


22  GOB'S  bisi:ntebestebness. 

set  out  and  go  there.  It  is  twilight  when  I  reach  the  town.  And 
weary  and  worn  I  sit  down  on  the  steps  of  a  little  dwelling.  I  can- 
not help  shedding  tears,  I  am  so  miserable.  I  say  to  mybclf,  "  I  have 
come  back  home,  and  I  cannot  find  that  anybody  who  knows  me 
lives  ;  and  I  have  no  place  to  go.  I  have  no  father  and  no  mother." 
And  I  lean  my  head  upon  my  hand,  and  against  the  door,  and  can- 
not sleep  for  my  thoughts.  Quite  unknown  to  me  or  theni  I  have 
sat  down  right  where  my  father  and  mother  live.  They  are  sitting 
by  the  hearth.  The  mother,  knitting,  and  looking  into  the  fire,  sees 
strange  ships,  and  on  every  one  of  them  is  her  sailor  boy.  And  she 
says,  "  Oh,  that  he  would  come  home  !"  And  the  father,  drawing 
out  his  handkerchief,  wipes  tears  from  his  eyes.  They  look  at  each 
other ;  and  each  knows  what  the  other  is  thinking  of ;  but  they  do 
not  speak.  The  thoughts  and  aifections  of  those  old  people  center 
about  me.  They  would  give  all  they  have  in  the  world  if  they  knew 
my  whereabouts.  And  there  I  sit  on  their  doorstep.  They  fain 
would  minister  to  my  wants ;  but  the  bounty  of  love  which  they 
would  bestow  upon  me  is  inside,  and  does  not  get  outside,  I  do  not 
press  in  to  get  it,  and  so  I  do  not  have  it. 

Now,  suppose  a  man,  going  on  in  a  sinful  course,  wants  to  be 
forgiven?  God  ofters  forgiveness  to  him;  but  it  may  be  that  it  does 
not  reach  him.  God  does  not  force  forgiveness  upon  men.  It  re- 
quires, in  order  to  be  efiectual,  to  be  accepted.  Unless  it  be  a  fact, 
a  reality,  to  a  man,  it  can  do  him  no  good.  And  so,  though  God 
pours  abroad  heart-love  for  all  men,  all  men  do  not  enjoy  its  bless- 
ings. The  sunlight  does  not  guide  blind  folks ;  and  love  does  not 
smile  upon  men,  though  it  be  never  so  bountiful,  if  they  do  not  open 
their  eyes  to  behold  it ;  but  the  moment  they  do  open  their  eyes, 
and  see  it,  they  feel  its  inspiring  power.  And  for  a  man  to  pray  for 
forgiveness  whose  heart  is  in  a  condition  to  receive  forgiveness,  is  like 
a  man's  praying  for  rain  in  an  equinoctial  storm.  The  whole  heaven 
is  full  of  it,  and  the  whole  earth  and  atmosphere  are  saturated  with 
it.  Take  it.  It  never  will  be  anything  to  you  till  you  do  take  it. 
Melt  it  into  your  consciousness.  Coin  it  into  your  own  experience. 
Then  it  will  bring  forth  rich  and  blessed  results.  The  trouble  is  that 
you  do  not  take  forgiveness.  Forgiveness  is  not  prepared  for  yoix  and 
for  the  occasion :  it  pours  forth  its  bounty  ceaselessly  and  endlessly. 
And  shall  father,  shall  mother,  shall  lover  never  forget  to  love,  and 
their  love  never  forget  to  be  gracious,  and  shall  God,  who  is  so  much 
greater,  and  so  much  grander,  and  so  much  better,  sit  with  unextin- 
guished hate  and  revenge  ?  Shall  he  not  love  on  and  forever,  who 
symbolizes  himself  by  the  ever-shining  sun,  which  pours  its  bounty 
on  the  good  and  the  bad,  and  who  sends  his  rain  on  the  just  and  the 
unjust  alike  ? 


GOD'S  BISINTEBESTEDNESS.  23 

You  will  be  very  apt  to  like  this  side  of  the  subject — the  forgive* 
ness  of  God  to  you ;  but  now,  on  the  other  side,  do  you  forgive  in 
that  way  ?  I  have  noticed  one  thing — that  men  are  always  willing 
to  forgive  after  an  offense  has  been  acknowledged,  and  the  effect  of 
it  has  been  done  away,  and  they  have  been  suitably  worshiped,  and 
patted,  and  "  set  up."  When  they  have  subdued  the  person,  and 
got  an  advantage  over  him,  then  they  are  willing  to  forgive  him. 
That  is  a  domineering  and  most  hateful  despotism,  instead  of  for- 
giveness. It  is  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  divine  forgiveness. 
Love  forgives  without  conditions.  Love  forgives  once  for  all.  Love 
forgives  without  regard  to  any  after  consideration.  Love  covers 
down  the  offense  which  it  has  forgiven. 

God's  love  does  to  the  sinner  what  a  mother's  love  does  to  a  frac- 
tious child.  The  child  disobeys  her,  and  gives  her  pain,  for  days, 
and  weeks,  and  months,  and  years ;  and  yet  she  forgives  it.  Do  you 
forgive  men  thus  ? 

You  say  men  who  have  committed  an  offense  against  you  do  not 
deserve  forgiveness.  But  the  question  of  forgiveness  is  not  one  of 
desert.  The  question  of  forgiveness  is  a  question  of  your  resemblance 
to  God.  It  is  a  question  of  your  being  filled  with  this  divine  benefi- 
cence. It  is  a  question  of  your  having  regard  for  the  well-being  of 
others,  and  yearning  to  do  them  good,  and  being  willing,  not  only 
to  give  them  amnesty,  but,  as  it  were,  to  give  them  your  own  self. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say,  then,  that  the  moment  a  man  has  done  you  a 
wrong  you  are  to  fly  to  his  neck  ?"  Oh,  no,  not  necessarily.  It  may  be 
that  the  manifestation  of  this  feeling  would  be  the  worst  thing  for  the 
person.  It  may  be  that  the  spirit  of  love  will  inspire  you  to  take  a 
course  of  discipline.  But  that  which  actuates  you  must  not  be  the 
hardness  of  conscience.  It  certainly  must  not  be  combativeness,  with 
the  monkey-cap  of  conscience  on  it.  It  must  not  be  hatred.  It 
must  not  be  revenge.  It  must  not  be  selfishness  making  believe  that 
it  is  conscience.  Nobody  has  a  right  to  chastise  till  he  is  in  a  forgiv- 
ing frame  of  mind ;  till  he  is  conscious  that  his  heart  is  full  and  sur- 
charged with  that  same  love  which  made  Christ  die  for  sinners  while 
yet  they  were  his  enemies. 

"  Oh,  but,"  say  men  (how  scriptural  men  become  when  it  is  the 

malign  passions  that  want  to  justify  themselves  !)  "  how  is  it  in  Luke 

xviith,  4th  ?"     Let  us  see  how  it  is. 

"  And  if  he  trespass  against  thee  seven  times  in  a  day,  and  seven  times 
in  a  day  turn  again  to  thee,  saying,  I  repent ;  thou  shalt  forgive  him." 

People  say,  "  As  soon  as  I  see  evidence  of  repentance,  I  am  will- 
ing to  forgive."  But  is  repentance  here  declared  to  be  a  condition 
of  forgiveness  ?  Not  at  all.  There  is  no  idea  conveyed,  that  you  shall 


24  GOB'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS. 

not  forgive  a  man  until  he  repents.  The  Saviour  is  supposing  the 
case  of  a  man  who  comes  to  you  to  be  forgiven  of  an  oflense.  The 
man  says,  "  I  have  offended  against  you,  and  I  beg  to  be  forgiven." 
Your  clerk  comes  to  you  and  says,  "  I  promise  never  to  drink  again ; 
but  last  night  I  was  overcome  by  wine.  I  am  sorry  for  it.  Will  you 
bear  with  me  ?"  "  Yes,"  you  say,  "  I  will  bear  with  you."  And  you 
do  not  say  it  because  the  man  says  that  he  is  sorry,  though  the  man 
does  say  so.  In  the  course  of  a  month  or  two  he  is  overcome  again, 
and  he  comes  back  and  implores  your  forgiveness,  saying,  "  I  have 
the  same  sad  story  to  tell,  and  I  am  ashamed  to  tell  it.  I  am  heart- 
ily sorry  for  it.  Last  night  I  was  carried  away  by  my  associates, 
and  led  to  drink  again.  Are  you  willing  to  bear  with  me  ?"  You  are 
willing ;  and  your  big-heartedness  is  such  that  you  forgive  him,  not 
simply  because  he  said,  "  I  am  sorry,"  not  because  of  any  good  thing 
that  is  in  him ;  but  out  of  regard  to  his  welfare.  Repentance  was 
never  made  by  our  Master  a  condition  of  forgiveness.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  Matthew  xviiith,  21st,  it  is,  without  any  qualification,  taught 
that  men  ought  to  be  forgiven  as  often  as  they  offend. 

*'  Then  came  Peter  to  him,  and  said,  Lord,  how  oft  shall  my  brother  sin 
against  me,  and  I  forgive  him  ?  till  seven  times  ?" 

Here  no  condition  is  stated. 

"  Jesus  said  unto  him  I  say  not  unto  you,  Until  seven  times  ;  but,  until 
seventy  times  seven." 

Now  that  is  language  to  which  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  apply 
any  condition.  It  is  definite  language.  It  means:  Forever  forgive. 
Live  in  a  state  of  mind  in  which  forgiveness  will  come  spontaneously. 
Never  will  a  man  come  to  you  in  such  a  state  that  you  ought  not  to 
be  in  a  forgiving  mood  toward  him. 

But  there  is  this  to  be  said  :  that  in  a  spirit  of  true  love  a  course 
of  discipline  pursued  with  the  person  forgiven  is  oftentimes  good  for 
that  person.  You  must  impose  some  limitation  that  shall  be  whole- 
some. You  may  say  to  your  child,  "  I  shall  not  show  you  kindness 
till  you  have  gone  and  asked  forgiveness  of  your  brother  whom  you 
spit  ixpon.  I  love  you  dearly.  I  love  you  too  well  to  let  you  go 
unpunished.  I  cannot  take  such  a  naughty  child  into  my  lap.  You 
shall  not  sit  with  me,  and  you  shall  not  sit  at  the  table,  and  you  shall 
not  go  with  your  young  companions,  until  you  have  brought  your- 
self into  a  right  state  of  mind.  I  am  in  a  right  state  of  mind,  and 
you  must  be,  too." 

A  man  stands  by  a  piano,  with  one  hand  on  the  key  and  the  other 
on  the  chord,  and  as  he  tightens  the  chord  it  cries,  "  Don't,  don't, 
don't,  don't,"  until,  at  last,  it  is  tuned ;  and  no  harm  is  done  to  the 
instrument,  either. 

So  God  does  to  us ;  and  so  we  do  to  others.    It  is  a  musical  ear 


GOD'S  DISINTERESTEDNESS.  25 

seeking  harmony — not  a  hard  hand  seeking  regularity.  So  we  deal 
with  our  children.  We  do  not  shield  them  from  the  effects  of  their 
wrong-doing.  But  there  must  be  discrimination  in  this  regard.  There 
must  not  be  a  systematic  laying  down  of  conditions.  You  say,  "  A 
man  that  has  done  wrong  must  take  steps  to  renounce  that  wrong. 
Let  him  show  me  that  he  is  sorry,  and  then  I  will  turn  around  and 
take  steps  to  forgive  him."  Not  a  bit  of  it.  That  is  not  the  idea  at 
all.  You  are  to  be  Father  Greatheart.  You  are  to  be  the  soul  of 
bounty.  You  are  to  love  that  man  so  much  that  you  can  be  patient 
with  him.  Yea,  more,  you  are  to  love  him  so  that  you  can  make  him 
suffer  for  the  sake  of  making  him  better.  But  it  must  be  unmistak- 
able love,  full  of  sweetness  and  graciousness  and  gentleness,  so  that 
the  sufferer  himself  shall  say,  "  It  is  love  dealing  with  me  for  my 
good."  There  is  to  be  no  acerbity  in  foi-giveness ;  there  is  to  be  no 
sternness  in  it ;  there  is  to  be  no  cruelty  in  it.  There  is  to  be  in  for- 
giveness nothing  but  the  deepest  love,  plenary,  ample,  infinite,  as  it 
is  administei-ed  in  the  hands  of  God  forever  and  forever.  And  all 
subterfuges  of  hatred  and  wounded  pride  must  be  exposed. 

There  are  thousands  of  persons  lurking  in  the  devil's  den  who  would 
have  you  believe  that  they  are  spotless  as  lambs.  They  are  not. 
They  are  wolves'cubs.  They  snap  with  their  teeth,  and  rend  with 
their  claws.  And  yet,  they  claim  to  be  acting  under  the  influence 
of  the  spirit  of  forgiveness.  They  "  stand  on  right  and  truth,  and 
do  not  forgive  until  men  are  prepared  by  repentance  to  be  forgiven." 
4.  In  organizing  the  household,  and  in  organizing  society,  is  it 
not  time  that  we  should  attempt  to  carry  out  to  their  full  force  the 
instruments  of  love  and  benevolence,  in  governing  and  developing 
men,  and  in  promoting  the  well-being  of  society.  We  have  tried 
other  things,  one  after  another.  We  have  had  eras,  we  have  had 
epochs,  of  various  kinds.  And  so  far  as  love  has  been  tried,  it  has 
been  found  to  be  the  most  universal  educator  and  cultivator  of  peace. 
There  is  one  place  where  love  is  more  nearly  uipreme  than  any- 
where else ;  and  that  is  where  success  has  been  achieved  more  nearly 
than  anywhere  else.  I  refer  to  the  household.  There  the  fountain 
of  love  is  never  sealed.  There  love  is  more  nearly  on  the  pattern 
of  love  in  heaven  than  anywhere  else.  That  is  the  bright  spot  of 
human  history.  While  nations  have  gone  on,  voluminous,  vast, 
dark,  with  desolation  on  every  hand,  groaning  and  travailing  in 
pain  until  now ;  while  there  have  been  outward  conflicts  innumer- 
able ;  while  the  world  has  been  full  of  confusion  and  crying  and 
misery,  there  have  been  in  all  lands  houses  with  families  secluded  in 
them.     And  that  which  the  State  lacked,  and  business  lacked,  and 


26  GOB'S  BISINTEBESTEBNESS. 

all  men  outside  of  the  household  lacked,  the  household  has  possessed. 
Equity,  justice,  forgiveness,  has  flourished  in  the  household. 

And  is  it  not  high  time  to  break  away  from  the  popular  notion 
in  regard  to  justice  and  forgiveness,"and  substitute  the  divine  idea 
for  it? 

At  present  I  should  not  abolish  the  ruder  forms  of  government, 
and  attempt  to  govern  simply  on  the  principle  of  benevolence, 
because  men  are  not  disciplined  to  it.  The  government  which  we 
have  is  better  than  nothing.  The  rude  forces  of  law  are  better  than 
nothing.  You  cannot  do  away  with  them  except  by  putting  in  their 
place  something  higher  and  nobler.  But  the  ideal  which  we  are 
to  strive  toward,  and  which  the  school  should  inculcate,  and  which 
the  press  should  urge,  is  a  government  after  the  pattern  of  the 
divine  government.  It  is  time  for  us  to  be  done  working  by  the 
selfish  and  malign  feelings.  We  have  worked  long  enough  by  the 
basilar  faculties.  It  is  time  for  the  pulpit,  and  the  paper,  and  the 
school,  as  well  as  the  household,  to  begin  to  work  by  the  law,  irre- 
pressible, of  love. 

"  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect." 

And  how  is  that  ?  Let  me  read  again  the  passage  with  the 
context : 

"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor,  and 
hate  thine  enemy.  But  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them 
that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  which 
despitefully  use  you,  and  persecute  you ;  that  ye  may  be  the  children  of 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ;  for  He  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil 
and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust." 


GOD'S  I)181NTEBE8TEDNE88.  27 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON.  ' 

We  thank  thee,  O  God!  for  thy  pity.  How  helpless  are  we,  striving 
against  the  mighty  forces  that  are  at  work  around  about  us,  ignorant,  in- 
constant, and  often  overborne  I  How  often  in  our  outward  and  bodily  life 
do  we  need  the  suggestions  of  thy  wisdom  and  the  government  of  thy  care 
and  kindness !  For  all  thy  mercies  through  providence  we  thank  thee.  And 
we  rejoice  that  thou  knowest  what  things  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask 
thee,  and  that  thou  art  preparing  and  wilt  prepare,  even  when  thou  doest  it 
through  ourselves,  working  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  the  things  that  are  right. 
We  rejoice  that  thou  hast  also  the  knowledge  of  that  which  is  within,  and 
that  all  our  hearts'  necessities  are  open  before  thee,  and  that  thou  dost  not 
sit  severely  judging.  We  rejoice  that,  knowing  what  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong  to  us,  thou  art  not  sitting  stern  and  ascerb  and  unrelenting,  sharply 
demanding  exact  rectitude  of  all  thy  creatures.  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his 
children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him.  For  he  knoweth  our 
frame ;  he  remembereth  that  we  are  dust.  Thou  dost  behold  what  might, 
what  power,  in  many  is  working  the  things  that  are  for  the  flesh  ;  and  thou 
seest  how  they  that  strive  against  the  flesh,  often  strive  in  discouragement 
and  defeat,  frequently  cast  down,  though  not  destroyed.  And  thou  dost 
have  compassion  upon  their  inflrmities.  Yea,,  and  thou  dost  have  compas- 
sion upon  their  sins.  Thou  dost  not  wait  to  be  gracious  until  they  have  dis- 
charged their  souls  of  all  iniquity,  faithful  in  word  and  life.  Thou  art 
beforehand  with  kindness,  and  with  mercy,  and  with  gentleness,  and  with 
goodness.  And  it  is  thy  gentleness,  it  is  thy  sparing  mercy,  it  is  thy  long- 
suffering  kindness,  it  is  thine  infinite  patience  with  us  that  saves  us.  And 
thou  art  ministering,  in  this  strife  within,  to  that  which  is  good.  Thou  art 
teaching  us  to  overcome  that  which  is  bad. 

We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  pity  upon  the  struggles  of  our  souls ;  and 
that  all  our  dim  discernings  of  things  higher  and  better,  which  come  to  tan- 
talize us  and  then  to  torment  us,  and  that  all  the  yearnings  which  we  have, 
are  the  Spirit  striving  in  us,  and  with  us,  with  groanings  that  cannot  be 
uttered. 

And  so,  though  we  cannot  see  thee  face  to  face,  though  we  know  only  in 
part,  and  look  out  upon  the  brilliant  obscure  of  the  other  life,  thou  art 
there,  and  art  drawing  us  up  toward  thee.  How  little  the  drops  that  go  up 
by  the  draught  of  the  sun  know  that  they  shall  shine  in  the  rainbow,  and 
glow  in  the  cloud!  So  thou  art  drawing  us  upward,  we  know  not  where, 
except  that  it  shall  be  to  joy  and  purity  and  dignity  and  glory.  We  do  not 
understand  these  things  yet,  nor  their  meanings ;  but  we  have  faith  to  be- 
lieve that  thou  art  sitting  in  an  eternal  Fatherhood  of  love,  and  that  thy 
heart  is  full  of  power,  and  that  all  wisdom  comes  forth  from  it.  Thou  art 
drawing  all  things  kindly,  gently,  upward  to  the  land  of  blessedness ;  and 
thou  wilt  overcome,  as  with  an  everlasting  victory,  all  opposition;  and 
thou  wilt  banish  all  things  from  heaven  that  make  offense  and  destroy  with 
transgression.  Thou  wilt  utterly  purify  the  universe.  Yet  the  day  shall 
come  when  thou  wilt  have  all  things  put  beneath  thy  power.  And  we  re- 
joice, though  the  fullness  of  the  meaning  cannot  be  apprehended,  that  we 
understand  enough  to  fill  us  with  hope  and  cheer.  We  shall  be  there ;  we 
shall  see  thee ;  we  shall  be  like  thee ;  we  shall  understand  even  as  now  we 
are  understood.  All  uncertainty  will  have  passed  away.  We  shall  begin 
the  better  career,  having  left  behind  tormenting  passions— the  body  and  all 
Its  inflrmities  and  ailments;  and  we  shall  be  as  the  angels  of  God.  In  the 
hope  of  this  blessed  consummation  we  live,  and  will  unto  the  end. 

Nbw,  draw  near  to  every  one  in  whom  thou  hast  implanted  these  desires; 


28  GOB'S  BISINTEBESTEBNESS. 

to  every  one  that  hungers  and  thirsts  for  righteousness,  to  teach  them  which 
is  the  Gate  Beautiful.  Teach  them  by  it  to  enter  the  temple  of  God.  And 
having  entered,  may  they  abide  there.  Teach  thou  thine  own  to  come  by 
the  way  of  love,  in  which  is  all  light,  and  all  strength,  and  all  hope,  and  all 
truth,  and  all  rectitude,  and  all  that  is  divine.  ' 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  interpret  thyself  more  and  more  to  thy  people 
in  the  royalty  of  thy  real  and  innermost  life.  We  pray  for  the  coming  of 
that  kingdom  in  which  love  shall  be  supreme.  Let  thy  will  be  done  upon 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  We  pray  for  the  day  when  more  and  more  shall 
seek  Christ,  subduing  their  pride,  their  selfishness,  and  their  waywardness, 
and  becoming  gentle,  and  long-suffering,  and  patient,  and  full  of  disin- 
terested kindness,  as  thou  art.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  those 
who  are  thine  may  grow  not  so  much  in  the  fervor  and  visions  and  rap- 
tures of  an  imaginative  experience,  as  in  the  reality  of  self-distrust  and 
self-denial,  and  of  doing  good,  and  of  being  good  that  they  may  do  good. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  increase  the  power  of  the  church  by  increas- 
ing the  power  of  the  faith  that  works  by  love  in  all  its  members.  j 
We  pray  that  thou  wilt  spread  abroad  this  Gospel  of  purity  and  of  recti- 
tude, by  the  power  of  divine  love  in  their  example.  Grant  that  if  there  be 
any  seeking  to  live  a  new  and  better  life,  they  may  not  hesitate  to  lay  aside 
their  sins.  May  they  have  the  inspiration  and  power  which  comes  from  the 
higher  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  May  they  learn  in  him  what  is  disinterested 
kindness  and  love.  And  may  they  seek  this  lo^^e  with  all  their  heart  and 
mind  and  soul  and  strength,  toward  God  and  toward  man.  May  it  be  the 
feeling  of  their  nature. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  patience  to  those  that  are  discouraged, 
or  those  that  seek  under  great  difQculties  to  fulfill  the  law  ot  God  in  them- 
selves. Even  if  they  suffer,  may  they  still  persevere,  knowing  that  when 
they  have  suffered  awhile  God  will  rescue  them,  or  that  he  will  give  them 
grace  to  bear,  if  he  take  not  the  thorn  from  their  side. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  thy  erring  children  wherever  they  are. 
Grant  that  they  may  be  conscious  that  the  treasure  that  waits  for  them  is 
greater  than  the  treasure  which  they  seek.  How  much  better  is  the  house 
above  than  the  houses  which  we  build  below !  How  much  better  are  the 
friendships  that  bloom  in  immortality  than  those  whose  seeds  we  plant  in 
this  chilly  soil  of  life!  How  much  better  is  the  glorious  companionship  and 
noble  society  of  the  blessed  in  heaven  than  that  which  we  seek  among  men  I 
Grant  that  we  may  have  imperishable  riches.  Grant  that  we  may  have 
friendships  that  never  grow  dim.  Grant  that  we  may  have  aspirations  and 
ambitions  that  shall  never  die,  but  that  shall  have  more  realization  beyond 
the  grave  than  they  can  have  here. 

We  pray,  O  Lord!  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  this  day  divine  truth  may 
be  ministered  in  us  by  these  holy  thoughts  and  ardent  yearnings.  Grant 
that  we  may  this  day  feel  ourselves  drawn  up  toward  thee.  How  all  things 
are  looking  up'to-day  toward  the  sun,  for  light  and  for  warmth !  How  all 
the  fields  yearn !  How  all  the  sleeping  tribes,  that  have  lain  long  covered 
down  by  winter,  begin  to  solicit,  and  are  drawn  unsolicited  by  the  bright 
shining  of  the  sun!  For  the  Spring  hath  come,  and  warmth  revives,  and 
the  singing  of  the  birds  is  heard  again.  So,  O  Sun  of  righteousness!  come 
to  our  winter.  So  come  to  all  our  dormant  thoughts  and  feelings  in  us,  that 
they  shall  spring  up  with  new  growth.  Make  our  heart  the  garden  of  the 
Lord.  Walk  thou  in  it.  And  may  we  meet  thee  unabashed  and  unashamed. 
We  pray  that  this  thy  church,  and  all  thy  churches,  may  rejoice  to-day. 
May  thy  servants  be  able  to  preach  with  heart,  and  with  soul,  and  with 
hope  of  success.  Wherever  they  are  in  the  circumstances  of  discourage- 
ment, wherever  they  sow  much  and  reap  little,  may  they  still  have  the  con- 


GOD'/S  BISINTEBUSTiJDNESS.  29 

I 
scious  presence  of  God,  and  may  their  faith  not  fail,  and  may  they  have  a 
longer  life  in  view  than  that  which  lies  between  these  horizons.  May  they 
live  and  labor  as  those  that  expect  to  see  another  and  glorious  life  beyond, 
when  resurrection  shall  have  found  them,  and  brought  them  into  the  pres- 
ence of  God.  And  so  may  they  endure  trials  and  burdens,  not  fainting  by 
the  way,  and  knowing  that  they  will  reap  in  due  season  if  they  faint  not.     \ 

We  pray  for  feeble  churches,  wherever  they  are,  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  our  land.  May  scattered  flocks  be  gathered  together  and 
may  shepherds  be  found  to  lead  them  by  the  side  of  still  waters.  | 

And  may  intelligence  prevail.  May  schools,  and  colleges,  and  academies, 
and  universities,  and  all  seminaries  of  learning,  sacred  and  divine,  have  thy 
presence  and  guidance,  that  the  young  that  are  passing  through  them,  may 
be  sanctified,  and  grow  up  to  be  godly  men. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  We  thank  thee  for  coming  peace.  We  pray  that  all  the  rav- 
ages of  war  may  be  repaired.  We  pray  that  those  that  sigh,  and  that  are 
bereaved,  and  that  sit  in  darkness,  may  find  consolation  and  comforters. 
May  the  day  come  when  justice  shall  prevail;  when  there  shall  be  no  war; 
when  this  mighty  medicine  of  God  shall  no  longer  be  given  to  the  nations 
that  are  sick  so  that  they  must  needs  drink  blood.  We  pray  thee.  O  Lord ! 
that  the  final  glory  may  come— the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in  which 
dwell  righteousness.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit,  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Wilt  thou  follow  with  thy  blessing,  Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father, 
the  word  of  truth  and  of  exhortation  which  has  been  spoken.  Fill  our 
hearts  with  supreme  beneficence.  May  it  grow  in  us.  And  as  from  the 
ripening  tree  fall,  even  in  the  silence  of  the  summer  night,  the  fruits  that 
are  waiting  for  the  comer,  so  from  our  unconscious  thought  and  our  uncon- 
scious feeling,  may  there  drop  down  perpetually  blossom  and  fruit  of  all 
goodness  and  love.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  we  may  seek  more  and  more 
the  mind  and  will  that  are  in  Christ.  And,  may  that  Spirit  which  is  in  the 
Father,  and  which  brought  him  from  the  throne  to  the  bottom  of  human 
life,  and  which  led  him  to  love  the  unlovely,  and  to  die  for  his  enemies,  and 
to  return  to  his  glory  above,  and  live  for  the  good  of  men— grant  that  it  may 
be  in  us.  And  may  we  remember  that  if  a  man  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ 
he  is  none  of  his.  And  finally  may  we  be  brought  where  we  shall  need  no 
more  exhortation,  and  shall  be  like  thee,  and  shall  shine  in  the  luminous- 
nes3  of  an  endless  life.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son, 
and  Spirit.    Amen. 


II. 

The  Liberty  of  the  Gospel. 


THE  LIBERTY  OE  THE  GOSPEL. 


I  propose  to  comment  upon  the  history  contained  in  the  21st 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Acts,  beginning  with  the  15th,  and  ending 
with  the  26th  verse. 

"  And  after  those  days  we  took  up  our  carriages,  and  went  to  Jerusalem. 
There  went  with  us  also  certain  other  disciples  of  Csesarea,  and  brought 
with  them  one  Mnason  of  Cyprus,  an  old  disciple,  with  whom  we  should 
lodge.  And  when  we  were  come  to  Jerusalem,  the  brethren  received  ua 
gladly.  And  the  day  following  Paul  went  with  us  unto  .Tames  ;  and  all  the 
elders  were  present.  And  when  he  had  saluted  them,  he  declared  partei- 
ularly  what  things  God  had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by  his  ministry." 

I  can  scarcely  understand  why  the  salutation  should  have  been 
mentioned,  unless  Paul's  habit  was  that  of  an  especially  perfect  gen- 
tleman. He  went  to  Jerusalem,  and  was  received  into  a  company  of 
prominent  Christians;  and  there  must  have  been  somethino-  very 
affectionate  in  the  mode  of  salutation  which  he  bestowed  on  them 
or  he  could  hardly  have  made  such  an  impression  as  is  indicated  by 
the  record. 

"  When  he  had  saluted  them,  he  declared  particularly  what  things  God 
had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by  his  ministry." 

This  was  a  conference-meeting  at  which  one  might  well  have 
desired  to  be  present.  Even  for  the  least  disciple  who  has  been 
active  in  any  good  word  or  work,  there  is  always  a  willing  ear  and 
a  ready  heart.  But  to  have  heard  Paul — a  man  of  such  universal 
nature  in  spiritual  directions  ;  a  man  who  had  traversed  every  re- 
gion, almost,  of  the  then  civilized  world ;  a  man  who  had  a  breadth 
of  experience  such  as,  perhaps,  can  never  fall  to  the  lot  of  any  other 
man — to  have  heard  him  give  some  account  of  his  own  personal  his- 
tory, was  a  privilege  devoutly  to  be  wished  for. 

I  remember  very  well  to  have  heard  Mr.  Nettleton,  when  he 
used  to  return  from  his  tours  of  revival  labors  to  the  old  house  of 
my  father  in  Litchfield,  recount  the  scenes  of  the  revivals  which  he 
had  gone  through  in  Danbury,  or  Woodbury,  or  wherever  he  had 
been  working ;  and  certainly,  even  to  me,  a  little  child,  they  were 
golden  hours  ;  and  to  my  father  and  to  him  they  were  hours  of 
triumph  beyond  the  ordinary  experiences  of  men  in  the  flesh.  But 
what  were  these  as  compared  with  the  hours  spent  in  an  assembly 

S^T^a)AY  MoRNiNQ,  Mar.  19, 1871.  Lesson:  Acts  XV.  1-33.  Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Nos.  40,  088,  1263. 


34  THE  LIBEBTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

where  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  presided,  and  where  mem- 
hers  of  the  Christian  church  of  Jerusalem  listened  to  the  Apostle 
Paul  recounting  what  he  had  seen,  and  heard,  and  thought,  and. felt, 
and  done,  all  over  the  Roman  empire  ! 

'•  And  when  they  heard  it,  they  glorified  the  Lord,  and  said  unto  him, 
Thou  seest,  brother,  how  many  thousands  of  Jews  there  are  which  believe ; 
and  they  are  all  jealous  of  the  law,  [the  law  of  Moses]." 

The  transition  seems  a  little  singular  here.  After  Paul  had  told 
of  his  revival  labors,  they  broke  out  into  a  triumphant  strain,  and 
glorified  God ;  and  then  they  said  unto  him, 

"  Thou  seest,  brother,  how  many  thousands  of  Jews  there  are  which 
believe  ;  and  they  are  all  jealous  of  the  law  :  and  they  are  informed  of  thee, 
that  thou  teachest  all  the  Jews  which  are  among  the  Gentiles  to  forsake 
Moses,  saying  that  they  ought  not  to  circumcise  their  children,  neither  to 
walk  after  the  customs." 

Though  they  were  in  a  rapturous  feeling  of  divine  love,  they  were 
yet  most  tender-hearted  in  respect  to  the  Mosaic  law  in  Jerusalem. 
And  they  went  on  to  say, 

"What  is  it,  therefore?  the  multitude  must  needs  come  together:  for 
they  will  hear  that  thou  art  come." 

So,  then,  you  see  that  Paul  had  his  orthodoxy  suspected  in  Je- 
rusalem. Would  it  not  seem  strange  to  you  to  hear  that  John 
Knox  was  suspected  of  being  heretical  in  Edinburgh  ?  or  that 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  suspected  of  being  unsound  in  Northamp- 
ton ?  or  that  John  Calvin  was  suspected  of  being  lenient  and  lax  in 
Geneva  ?  And  does  it  not  seem  strange  that  St.  Paul,  in  Jerusa- 
lem, was  not  regarded  as  having  got  up  to  the  highest  mark  as  a 
religious  man  ?  So  it  was.  It  was  not  openly  charged  that  he  was 
not  orthodox.  There  were  rumors  to  that  effect,  but  no  charges — 
none  whatever.  The  case  was  probably  this :  that  when  Paul's 
name  was  mentioned  among  the  assemblies  of  Christians  in  Jerusa- 
lem, they  used  to  say,  "  Yes,  a  very  zealous  man  ;  but  I  am  afraid." 
"What  are  you  afraid  of  ?''  "  Well,  I  should  not  like  to  say.  I 
would  rather  not  talk  about  these  things,  for  I  hope  it  will  all  turn 
out  right."  At  other  times  his  name  would  be  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  some  transcendent  work  ;  and  they  would  say,  "  O,  yes, 
Paul  is  a  successful  worker.  He  has  the  art  of  stirring  up  com- 
munities.     He   is   very  influential.      But  then well,  I  hope  it 

will  all  turn  out  right !"  And  so,  after  twenty  years  of  earnest, 
faithful  labor  in  almost  all  the  civilized  world,  Paul  came  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  find  that  he  was  not  "  orthodox"  according  to  the  views  of 
Christians  there.  He  found  that  they  held  him  in  doubt.  And  this 
is  all  the  more  extraordinary  considering  that  these  men  were 
most  of  them  Christians. 

The  elders,  by  the  voice  of  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  who 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  35 

presided — the  oldest  man,  and  doubtless  the  natural  leader  of  the 
brctlircn  there — said  to  Paul, 

"  Do,  therefore,  this  that  we  say  to  thee :  We  have  four  men  which  have 
avow  on  them  [according  to  the  Mosaic  system];  them  take,  and  purify 
thyself  with  them,  and  be  at  charges  with  them,  that  they  may  shave  their 
heads ;  and  all  may  know  that  those  things  whereof  they  were  informed 
concerning  thee,  are  nothing  ;  but  that  thou  thyself  also  walkest  orderly, 
and  keepest  the  law." 

That  was  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Your  orthodoxy  is  suspected.  Now 
do  you  go  in  and  subscribe  to  the  entire  Confession  of  Faith,  and  ac- 
ccept  it  whole,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  people  ;  and  then  they  will  say 
that  yoii  are  orthodox  and  sound."  Says  this  council  in  Jerusalem 
to  the  apostle  Paul,  the  most  successful  and  zealous  man  that  ever 
labored  in  the  Christian  ministry,  '*  Go  into  the  temple  as  thouo-h 
you  had  never  heard  of  Christ,  and  make  yourself  a  therough  Jew 
in  their  sight.  Here  are  four  men,  Nazarites :  you  go  with  them 
and  pay  their  charges  " — or  pay  charges  with  them.  Some  think  that 
they  were  poor  and  could  not  pay  their  own  charges  and  so  absolve 
themselves  from  their  vow,  and  that  Paul  was  to  pay  their  charges 
for  them :  others  think  that  he  was  simply  to  stand  with  them,  and 
be  recognized  with  them  as  under  a  vow.  When  a  Nazarite  made 
a  vow,  it  required  his  abstenation  from  intoxicating  drinks.  It  for- 
bade him  to  cut  his  hair.  It  forbade  him  to  touch  anything,  under 
any  circumstances,  that  had  died.  A  Nazarite  vow,  at  the  time  of 
our  Saviour  and  during  the  times  of  the  apostles,  could  not  last  less 
than  thirty  days.     It  might  last  longer. 

And  so  here  were  these  men ;  and  the  Apostle  Paul  was  to  join 
them,  and  to  present  himself  with  them  w^ith  three  offerings —  a 
he-lamb,  for  a  sin-offering ;  a  ewe-lamb,  for  a  burnt-offering  ;  and  a 
ram,  for  a  thank-offering. 

This  was  what  was  recommended  him  to  do :  To  go  into  the  tem- 
ple, as  though  all  h's  prejudices  were  orthodox,  and  so  place  him- 
self on  a  footing  -with  his  countrymen,  and  to  do  it  on  purpose  to 
produce  the  impression  on  his  fellow-Christians  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
that  he,  like  them,  had  not  abandoned  Moses,  but  that  he  was 
"  orderly" — that  is,  that  he  was  in  the  very  way  of  his  fathers. 
I       They  said  to  him : 

*'  As  touching  the  Gentiles  which  believe,  we  have  written  and  concluded 
that  they  observe  no  such  thing,  save  only  that  they  keep  themselves  from 
things  offered  to  idols,  and  from  blood,  and  from  strangled,  and  from  for- 
nication." 

That  is,  Jews  must  go  after  the  manner  of  the  Jews  ;  but  with 
a  few  exceptions,  for  special  reasons.  Gentiles  are  not  to  be  bur- 
dened with  Jewish  ceremonials.  They  may  go  after  the  manner  of 
the  Gentiles.    That  was  the  declaration  of  the  council. 


36  THE  LIBBETY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL. 

"  Then  Paul  took  the  moH,  and  the  next  day  purifying  himself  with  them 
entered  into  the  temple,  to  signify  the  accomplishment  of  the  days  of  purifi- 
cation, until  that  an  offering  should  be  offered  for  every  one  of  them. 

This  history  of  the  primitive  church  in  Jerusalem  is  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary,  I  think,  in  the  New  Testament,  when  all  its  hid- 
den significance  is  brought  out. 

1.  It  strikes  us  as  very  strange  indeed,  that  Paul  himself  should 
not  have  sufficiently  vindicated  his  adhesion  to  the  national  faith, 
and  that  he  should  have  been  laid  under  suspicion.  It  does  not  fol- 
low, however,  that  all  men  who  are  suspected  are  like  Paul.  It  does 
not  follow  that  a  man  may  not  be  justly  suspected.  But  it  does 
show  that  when,  in  any  nation,  or  at  any  period,  a  man  undertakes 
to  develop  a  higher  obligation  out  of  a  lower  one,  a  religious  life  out 
of  a  dead  fonn,  a  vital  spirit  from  a  dogma,  or  the  full  truth  from 
its  seed,  he  renders  himself  liable  to  misapprehension,  as  one  that  is 
abandoning  the  faith.  That  which  people  love  to  hear,  is  what  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  hear — only  they  like  to  hear  it  in  an 
original  form.  They  like  to  see  the  same  truths,  but  they  like  to 
see  them  dressed  differently.  The  ideas  that  men  have  been  edu- 
cated in;  thb  views  that  men  have  held  from  time  immemorial, 
become,  in  some  sense,  parts  of  their  selfness.  They  identify  them- 
selves with  those  views.  And  when  men  preach  them  again,  with 
vivacity,  and  with  glowing  illustration,  and  with  power,  it  is  a 
kind  of  subtle  compliment  to  their  believing  them  already.  Men 
like  old  things  in  new  clothes.  And  in  Paul's  time  they  liked  to 
hear  the  Apostles  preach  just  what  they  had  always  believed,  only 
making  it  more  plain.  Self-love  says,  "  We  knew  that  we  were 
right ;  and  now  we  see  how  gloriously  right  we  have  been."  i 

When  one  undertakes  to  develop  out  of  an  imperfect  morality  a 
higher  morality,  just  in  proportion  as  he  goes  from  leaf  to  blossom, 
or  from  blossom  to  cluster,  he  renders  himself  liable  to  be  appre- 
hended for  having  abandoned  the  faith.  The  Christian  Jews  had 
accepted  Christ.  They  had  believed  in  him.  They  had  adhered  to 
him  by  the  power  of  faith.  And  yet  they  could  not  bear  to  break 
away  from  the  temple,  nor  from  the  routine  regularity  of  the  Mosaic 
law.  So,  when  they  heard  that  Paul  had  no  objection  to  circum- 
cision, but  did  not  care  for  circumcision ;  that  he  had  no  objection 
to  sacrifice,  but  that  he  did  not  consider  sacrifice  as  necessary,  they 
said,  "  This  Paul  is  an  invader  of  settled  opinions ;  this  Paul  is  a 
dangerous  man.  He  may  be  right ;  but  you  cannot  tell  where  all 
this  will  end.  Probably  he  will  go  to  Hellenic  views,  and  become  a 
teacher  of  false  philosophies  "—and  that,  because  he  held  the  whole 
economy  of  Moses  in  a  higher  sense,  and  with  a  nobler  purpose,  than 
they  did  who  suspected  him! 


TEE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  37 

The  question  should  be  always  this,  in  regard  to  new  views  or 
ideas  that  are  presented  :  Do  the  new  doctrines  tend  to  loosen  moral 
obli"-ation  ?  Do  they  tend  to  give  larger  liberty  to  the  under  man 
than  to  the  upper  man  ?  Do  they  tend  to  produce  spirituality,  or 
its  lack  ?  Are  they  lowering  the  moral  standard,  or  are  they  raising 
it  ?  For,  whatever  bfings  new  motives  to  the  higher  spiritual  life ; 
whatever  tends  to  carry  men  up  toward  faith,  and  love,  and  disin- 
terested activity,  cannot  be  far  wrong. 

2.  This  scene  reveals  the  fact  that  some  thirty  years  after  Christ's 
death  (some  chronologists  say  twenty-eight,  and  some  thirty),  the 
Christians  of  Jerusalem  were  in  full  communion  with  the  Jewish 
temple.  After  our  Saviour  had  been  gone  from  the  earth  from  twenty- 
eight  to  thirty  years,  the  whole  assembly  of  Christians,  with  James, 
the  brother  of  our  Lord,  at  their  head,  the  whole  central,  mother 
Church,  in  Jerusalem,  were  in  full  communion  with  the  temple.  We 
have  the  most  explicit  testimony  of  this. 

"  When  they  heard  it,  they  glorified  the  Lord,  and  said  unto  him,  Thou 
seest,  brother,  how  many  thousands  of  Jews  there  are  which  believe ;  and 
they  are  all  jealous  of  the  law." 

They  all  yet  believed  in  Moses.  They  all  believed  in  the  cere- 
monies and  ways  of  the  temple.  Well,  what  of  that  ?  A  good  deal 
of  that,  if  you  will  only  consider  its  meaning. 

Where,  then,  is  the  claim  that  Jesus  delivered  to  his  apostles,  or 
that  he  in  any  wise  shaped  out,  a  Christian  Church,  or  a  Christian 
polity  ?  Here,  thirty  years  after  Christ's  ascension,  but  a  few  steps 
from  the  very  place  where  he  offered  himself  as  a  sacrifice,  was  the 
Mother  Church  still  making  oiFerings  and  sacrifices  in  the  old  Jewish 
temple  !  Nay,  so  tenacious  were  they  that  the  temple- worship  should 
be  observed,  that,  by  the  authority  of  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord, 
and  by  the  consent  of  the  whole  Church,  the  chief  apostle  of  the  New 
Dispensation  was  made  ostentatiously  to  go  through  a  portion  of  the 
distinctively  Mosaic  ceremonial,  in  order  to  approve  himself  to  the 
Church  in  Jerusalem.  And  yet,  how  many  ten  thousand  times,  in 
ten  thousand  books,  has  it  been  said  that  our  Lord  told  the  apostles 
just  how  the  Church  was  to  be  fixed  ;  just  how  its  frame  was  to  be 
laid  down ;  just  what  were  to  be  its  ordinances  and  policy  and  wor- 
ship, while  here  we  find  that  thirty  years  afterward  those  very  men 
yet  served  God  in  the  temple  ! 

Where,  then,  is  your  prescribed  polity  ?  Where  are  your  priestly 
orders,  your  authoritatively  ordained  ceremonies  ?  Where  is  your 
exact,  systematic  worship  ?  Where  are  your  High  and  Low  schools  ? 
The  fact  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  the  Christians  in  Jerusalem  had  no 
idea  of  a  church  organization  thirty  years  after  Christ's  ascension. 


38  THE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

The  inference  is  irresistible.  "Why,  do  you  suppose  that  if  our  Lord 
had  said  to  the  disciples,  or  to  the  apostles,  "  Such  is  to  be  the  pat- 
tern of  Church  service,"  they  would  have  forgotten  it  so  soon  ?  Had 
he  ordained  any  system  of  worship,  and  told  his  followers  that  that 
was  the  pattern  of  his  future  Church,  would  they  not  have  remem- 
bered it,  and  acted  accordingly  ?  And  yet,  there  was  nothing 
which  indicated  that  they  had  received  any  such  instructions  from 
the  Master, 

You  cannot  find  one  word  that  was  uttered  by  Christ  which  can 
be  construed  into  an  indication  of  an  outward  form  for  his  Church. 
Nor  can  you  find  in  the  primitive  teachings  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves the  claim  that  there  was  any  form  whatever  prescribed  for 
the  Church.  And  all  that  which  has  passed  into  the  faith  of  modern 
times  in  respect  to  the  external  form  of  the  Church,  is  absolutely  of 
human  invention.  It  is  none  the  worse  for  that ;  but  the  divine  and 
binding  authority  of  the  external  forms,  and  ordinances,  and  cere- 
monies connected  with  church  life,  is  gone,  if  it  is  pretended  that 
such  authority  is  derived  mainly  from  the  apostles,  or  still  higher, 
from  Chrfst.     For  they  gave  no  such  authority. 

The  Christian  scheme  was  not  a  philosophy.  It  was  not  a  cajjit- 
ulary  of  great  truths.  It  was  still  less  an  organization.  The  Chris- 
tian scheme  was  something  far  transcending  a  philosophy.  It  was 
something  far  nobler  than  an  organization.  It  was  an  inspiration. 
It  was  a  divine  afflatus.  It  was  a  power  introduced  into  t4ie  world 
by  which  the  best  impulses  of  men  should  be  led  up  toward  ideal 
life.  The  central  peculiarity  of  Christianity  was  this :  It  prescribed 
a  life  transcending  all  ordinary  attainments,  and  then  brought  a 
moral  pressure  to  bear  upon  men,  to  carry  them  up  to  that  life.  It 
neither  taught,  nor  was  designed  to  teach,  a  philosophy.  It  said 
neither,  *'  Those  things  are  true,"  nor,  "  These  things  are  not  true." 
It  left  men  to  find  out  for  themselves  whether  they  were  true  or  not. 
And  from  the  time  of  Christ  to  our  day,  Christian  theology  has  been 
growing  according  to  the  analogy  of  any  other  system.  It  has  had 
to  pass  through  precisely  the  same  experience  that  any  other  form 
of  philosophy  passes  through.  And  church  organizations  were  not 
ordained  to  be  just  so,  and  just  so  many.  They  have  gone  on  in- 
creasing until  the  number  of  them  is  very  large ;  and  we  shall  still 
have  more  of  them.  But  it  is  not  of  these  that  I  designed  to  speak. 
I  will  now  merely  speak  of  the  Church  in  the  sense  of  its  having 
one  external  form. 

In  our  Master's  teachings,  and  in  the  teachings  of  the  apostles 
and  disciples,  there  is  no  hint  that  there  was  to  be  a  single  outward 
organization  after  a  given  pattern.     The  disciples  were  to  assemble, 


THE  LIBEBTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  39 

they  were  to  organize,  they  were  to  worship, — but,  the  spirit  being 
right  the  method  in  all  cases  was  to  be  determined  by  experience. 
And  if  there  was  to  be  a  different  external  form  of  organization,  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem,  the  mother  Church  of  all,  did  not  know  it,  and 
was  still  in  the  temple,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  make  Paul  go  there, 
and  offer  up  sacrifices,  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Christ.  Thirty 
years  before,  one  great  Sacrifice  for  all  had  been  offered  up.  Thirty 
years  before,  the  outward  altar  had  been  really  smitten ;  but  it  had 
not  yet  been  set  aside.  And  they  had  not  found  it  out,  and  were 
attempting  to  carry  on  both  the  inward  spirit  of  Christ  and  the  ex- 
ternal economy  of  the  Jews. 

3.  It  is  also  shown,  here,  that  the  apostles  put  the  Jews  and  the 
Gentiles  upon  a  different  footing  in  regard  to  ethical  duties  ;  that 
the  things  which  were  binding  on  the  Jews  were  not  binding  on  the 
Gentiles ;  and  vice  versa.  In  other  words,  the  apostles  did  not  set 
out  with  one  definite  economy  for  all  nations.  Holiness  of  life  was 
to  be  universal.  But  all  externals  of  worship  and  government  were 
to  vary  with  the  circumstances  of  differing  nations.  "When  among 
one  class,  early  Christians  insisted  upon  the  law  of  Moses — circum- 
cision and  sacrifices ;  and  when  they  were  among  another  class,  they 
waived  these  things.  They  said  to  the  Gentiles  outside  of  Jerusa- 
lem, "  This  yoke  is  not  to  be  laid  on  you.  You  are  not  to  be  circum- 
cised nor  to  offer  sacrifices."  But  in  Jerusalem  men  were  not  to  evade 
the  service  of  the  Temple.  And  how  is  this  consistent  with  one  uni- 
form administration — one  uniform  ritual — one  system  of  universal 
ordinances  ? 

They  said  to  Paul,  "  You  being  a  Jew,  go  and  perform  the  duties 
of  a  Jew,  and  show  that  you  are  sound,  and  that  you  do  believe  in 
Moses,  and  in  sacrifices,  and  in  the  temple.  But,"  said  they,  "  we 
have  told  those  people  in  yonder  city  that  all  they  need  to  do  is,  not 
touch  blood,  or  things  offered  to  idols,  and  to  keep  themselves  from 
fornication." 

Does  not  this  show  that  different  men,  under  different  circum- 
stances, are  to  be  treated  differently  ?  Does  it  not  show  that  men 
must  be  educated  to  a  certain  point  before  you  can  successfully  at- 
tempt to  take  them  from  the  animal  up  to  the  spiritual  life  ? 

In  the  sight  of  the  apostles,  men's  prejudices  and  ignorance  were 
realities,  and  were  not  treated  with  rude  assault,  but  were  taken  in- 
to tender  consideration. 

Suppose  a  surgeon  should  go  into  a  household  where  a  man  had 
a  vast  wen  on  his  neck,  and,  while  he  shook  hands  with  him  very 
gently  with  one  hand,  should  hit  the  wen  a  terrible  blow  with  the 
other  ?  and  suppose,  when  the  man  complained  that  that  was  rude 


40  THE  LIBUETY  OF  THE  GOSFEL. 

•*»  , 

treatment,  the  surgeon  should  say,  "  Oh,  that  is  nothing  but  a  wen. 
It  is  no  part  of  you.  I  have  no  idea  of  respecting  your  wen.  I 
respect  you ;  but  that  wen  has  nothing  to  do  with  you  ?"  Such  a 
surgeon  would  be  like  many  reformers,  who,  because  they  are  men 
of  truth,  and  perceiving  that  other  men  have  many  prejudices  and 
superstitions,  strike  them  with  their  fists,  as  if  they  were  wens,  jus- 
tifying themselves  by  saying,  "  They  are  superstitions ;  they  are  prej- 
udices :  am  I  bound  to  respect  these  ?"  No,  perhaps  not ;  but  you 
are  bound  to  respect  the  palpitating  heart  that  lies  behind  them. 
You  are  bound  to  respect  the  soul  whose  ,' superstition  or  prejudice 
you  assail. 

See  how  gentle  the  apostles  were.  See  how  they  said  to  the 
Gentile  converts,  "  You  may  act  according  to  this  simple  rule  ;"  and 
see  how  they  turned  to  Paul,  and  said,  "  The  brethren  in  Jerusalem 
will  not  understand  it  if  you  take  your  higher  view  of  spiritual  life 
and  act  according  to  that.  By  so  doing  you  will  tread  on  their  edu- 
cated notions.  You  will  grieve  and  wound  them.  You  will  make 
yourself  a  hinderance  in  their  way.  You  will  be  suspected  of 
infidelity.     Now  put  yourself  in  line  with  them."    And  Paul  did. 

"  To  them  that  are  under  the  law,  as  under  the  law ;"  "to  them  that  are 
without  law,  as  without  law,  (being  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under  the 
law  to  Christ)." 

It  is  as  if  he  had  said,  "  I  did  not  give  up  principle.  I  was  held 
by  a  jirinciple  ;  but  it  was  a  higher  one." 

Now  is  not  this  liberality  a  genuine  thing  ?  Is  it  not  conform- 
able to  the  wisdom  of  love  ?  Is  it  not  conformable  to  the  indis- 
pensable necessities  of  the  human  family  ? 

Men  are  blamed  because  they  are  breaking  away  from  this  or 
that  system.  They  are  called  heretics  because  they  do  not  walk 
more  according  to  the  customs  of  their  fathers.  A  man  should  do 
both  things,  as  far  as  it  is  necessary  to  promote  charity :  he  should 
reach  toward  a  higher  spirituality,  in  order  to  lead  men  up  still 
further ;  and  he  has  at  the  same  time  the  liberty  of  conforming  or 
non-conforming  to  the  regular  customs  of  the  community  in  which 
he  dwells.  And  in  both  instances  he  is  so  to  do  it  as  not  to  ofiend. 
It  is  to  be  done  as  a  work  of  true  spirituality  ;  as  a  means  of 
developing  a  higher  life. 

According  to  this  action  of  the  apostle,  principles  were  pro- 
claimed, and  then  the  adaptations  of  them  were  left  to  circum- 
stances. The  spirit  first,  and  then  the  form.  If  the  spirit  be  right, 
the  principle  may  safely  be  left  to  shape  itself.  And  this  is  the  sub- 
stance of  the  testimony  of  the  church  of  Christ  in  Jerusalem. 

4.  What  shall  we  say  to  Paul's  remarkable  conduct  under  this 
advice  ?    Having  been  a  Pharisee,  it  is  not  at  all  remarkable  that 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  41 

by  rebound  his  ideas  of  Christian  liberty  should  have  become  the 
largest,  and  that  he  should  have  become  an  apostle  to  the  Gentiles, 
even  more  eminently  than  Peter  himself  was.  Nowhere  is  personal 
liberty  more  insisted  upon  than  in  the  writings  of  the  apostle  Paul. 
Nowliere  shall  you  find  such  a  noble  tribute  paid  to  the  authority, 
and  the  sole  authority  of  the  conscience,  the  moral  sense  of  man,  as 
contrasted  with  the  authority  of  law  or  of  ceremony,  as  in  his  let- 
ters. He  declares  that  a  man  who  is  truly  in  Christ  Jesus ;  who  is 
learned  in  the  spirit  of  Christ  ;  in  other  words,  that  a  man  who  has 
grown  into  this  higher  spirituality,  with  its  intuitions,  and  its  inspira- 
tions, will  have  that  which  will  stand  him  in  stead  of  all  rules  and 
of  all  ordinances,  and  of  services  of  every  description ;  that  he  will 
be  a  law  unto  himself.  He  resented  any  intrusion  on  his  personal 
liberty ;  and  he  was  jealous  for  the  personal  liberty  of  other  men. 
For  more  than  twenty  years  he  had  been  preaching  this  grand  doc- 
trine of  individual  liberty  in  Christ.  He  had  tested  the  sufficiency 
of  the  Mosaic  economy,  and  had  declared  that  it  had  failed,  through 
the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  to  bring  to  pass  the  thing  for  which  it 
was  ordained.  Nay,  he  had  declared  that  if  men  went  back  to  it, 
they  abandoned  Christ. 

And  yet,  after  having  preached  so  long,  that  Christ  was  a  suffi- 
cient sacrifice,  and  that  faith  in  Christ  was  a  substitute  and  perfect 
fulfillment  of  the  whole  law,  the  moment  he  went  up  to  Jerusalem 
and  found  that  he  could  relieve  the  consciences  of  men  in  the  church 
there  by  conforming  to  the  law  of  Moses,  he  did  it.  He  again 
ofiered  sacrifices ! 

Was  not  that  insincere  ?  Well,  it"  would  have  been  insincere 
under  certain  circumstances.  If  he  had  believed  that  abstinence  from 
these  ceremonies  was  obligatory,  then  he  would  have  been  insincere. 
If  he  had  believed,  as  the  Friends  or  Quakers  do,  that  outward  forms 
must  not  be  used,  because  they  were  forbidden  by  the  revelation  of 
the  higher  life  in  the  Spirit,  then  he  would  have  been  insincere.  If 
he  had  believed,  as  do  the  high  church  party  in  any  denomination 
(for  every  denomination  has  its  high-church  party)  that  there  was  an 
exact  plan  and  system  ordained  of  God,  and  that  those  who  con- 
formed to  that  system  were  right,  and  that  those  who  did  not  were 
wrong,  then  he  would  have  been  insincere.  But  he  believed  that 
in  Christ  J^esus,  neither  circumcision  availed  anything^  nor  uncir- 
cutncision,  but  a  neto  creature. 

This  is  it :  When  a  man  has  risen  from  his  lower  nature,  so  that 
he  sees  God  face  to  face  ;  when  by  invisible  truths  he  learns  to  love 
God  and  man,  he  is  in  a  state  in  which  many  things  are  indifferent  to 
him  which  would  be  important  under  a  lower  condition.     There  is  an 


42  TEE  LIBEBTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

antinomianism  which  is  spiritually  true ;  and  there  is  an  antinomian- 
ism  which  is  immoral  and  debauching ;  but  when  one  has  risen  to  such 
a  state  of  moral  feeling  that  he  can  see  God  and  commune  with  him, 
it  makes  no  difference  to  him  whether  he  observes  this  and  that  cus- 
tom or  ordinance  or  not.  He  is  not  affected  by  baptism  one  Avay  or 
the  other.  He  may  take  it,  or  he  may  neglect  it.  He  may  partake 
of  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  he  may  go  without  it. 
These  things  are  helps  ;  but  if  a  man  has  risen  to  that  state  in  which 
he  already  possesses  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  is  a  new  creature  in  Christ 
Jesus,  he  is  no  longer  beholden  to  them.  But  they  ai^e  not  forbidden 
to  him.  He  may,  therefore,  sit  down  in  the  temple  and  take  meat  that 
is  offered  to  an  idol,  and  it  will  make  no  difference.  It  will  make 
no  difference  whether  or  not  he  eats  herbs  or  meat.  The  thing 
for  which  all  ordinances  and  governments  are  appointed,  is  to 
instruct  men,  to  exalt  them  from  animal  conditions,  and  to  bring 
them  into  a  higher  spiritual  nature.  And  when  one  is  brought  up 
there,  he  may  abide  there  if  he  can  without  any  external  ordinances  : 
or,  if  he  please,  he  may  observe  such  ordinances.  They  are  not 
masters,  but  instruments.  ! 

And  so,  though  Paul  had  preached  that  men  were  not  to  be  cir- 
cumcised, when  he  went  into  Jerusalem,  and  found  that  a  good  end 
would  be  served  by  it,  he  permitted  it.  When,  before  he  went  to 
Jerusalem,  he  saw  that  it  would  be  a  yoke  upon  the  Gentile  converts 
to  be  held  by  the  Mosaic  economy,  he  told  them  that  they  were  not 
bound  by  it ;  but  when  he  went  to  Jerusalem,  and  found  that  the 
Jewish  Christians  would  suppose  that  he  had  departed  from  the 
faith  of  the  Fathers,  and  that  it  would  overthrow  their  confidence 
in  him,  because  he  did  not  believe  in  the  Mosaic  economy,  then  he 
conformed. 

I  know  how  insincere  this  will  seem  to  you.  But  it  is  because 
you  are  under  the  bondage  of  external  form.  It  is  because  you  do  not 
yet  understand  the  masterhood  of  the  Spirit.  Christ's  Kingdom  is 
within  us.  To  Him  belongs  all  that  is  spiritual.  All  the  external 
church  is  human. 

Now,  in  regard  to  all  outside  things  pertaining  to  religion,  and 
to  churches,  and  to  the  whole  economy  of  ordinances  and  doctrines, 
you  may  have  them  if  you  can  make  anything  out  of  them  ;  and  if 
you  do  not  want  them,  you  may  go  without  them.  Though,  when 
you  go  among  men  that  hold  them,  you  will  sometimes,  for  their 
sake,  observe  them.  You  will  be  to  them  that  are  under  the  law,  aa 
under  the  law. 

I  should  not  hesitate,  if  I  went  into  a  Roman  Catholic  church, 
and  all  that  went  with  me  believed  that  perhaps  I  was  a  Christian, 


THE  LIBBBTY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL.  43 

and  dipiiccl  their  finger  in  the  holy  water  and  made  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  to  dip  my  finger  in  the  holy  water  and  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross.  I  have  as  much  right  to  the  cross  as  they  have ;  and  as  to  the 
holy  water,  if  it  did  not  do  me  any  good,  it  certainly  would  not  do 
me  any  hurt. 

"  Yes,  but  do  not  you  give  encouragement  to  their  wrong  beliefs 
and  superstitions  ?"  No  more  than  Paul  did  to  the  wrong  beliefs  and 
superstitious  of  the  men  that  stood  around  about  the  altar  in  the 
temple. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  is  there  not  such  a  thing  as  havino- 
sympathy  with  a  heart  that  is  bound  by  superstition  ?  Is  it  the 
best  way  to  cure  superstition  to  treat  it  rudely  ?  Would  not  treat- 
ing it  tenderly,  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a  man  confidence  in 
your  desire  to  benefit  him,  be  more  likely  to  efiect  a  cure  ?  Is  it 
not  wiser  to  show  a  man  by  your  gentleness  that  you  regard  his 
feelings,  than  rudely  to  tread  them  under  foot  ?  Some  things  are 
sacred  to  one  man  which  are  not  sacred  to  another ;  and  each  should 
respect  the  things  which  are  sacred  to  the  other.  Your  sacred  thinirs 
ought  to  be  respected  by  me,  and  my  sacred  things  ought  to  be 
respected  by  you.  But  I  am  not  bound  to  conform  to  all  that  you 
regard  as  imperative ;  and  you  are  not  bound  to  conform  to  all  that 
I  regard  as  imperative.  Love  gives  universal  liberty  in  these  things. 
The  spirit  of  love  and  faith  sets  me  free  from  the  bondage  of  cere- 
mony, ordinances,  and  services,  and  says  to  me,  "  Use  them  if  you 
need  them,  and  nse  any  of  them  that  you  need"  ;  and  it  says  to  me 
■'  If  you  do  not  need  them,  you  ai-e  not  bound  to  use  them." 

I  do  not  keep  Sunday  because  I  think  it  is  obligatory  in  the  sense 
that  the  love  of  God  is  obligatory.  I  keep  Sunday  because  I  like  to 
keep  it ;  because  it  is  a  day  of  sweetness  to  my  soul.  It  is  my  heart's 
delight ;  it  is  honorable  to  me ;  and  therefore  I  keep  it.  I  am  not 
bound  by  days.  I  am  not  bound  by  services  or  ceremonies.  I  feel  at 
liberty  on  the  Sabbath  day  to  seek  my  sanctuary  in  the  forest.  Men 
say  to  me,  "  May  I  worship  God  in  the  field  ?"  I  say  to  them,  "  If 
you  are  called  to  worship  God  in  the  field,  yes."  I  may  pass  a  criti- 
cism on  the  sincerity  of  your  claim  if  I  see  that  you  do  not  want 
to  Avorshij)  at  all,  and  that  you  make  this  a  pretext;  but  if  I  see  that 
you  liave  a  conscience,  or  spiritual  sense,  and  that  the  sounding  sea, 
or  the  leafy  forest,  or  the  open  fields,  with  the  chanting  insects  and 
choiring  birds,  are  instruments  of  God's  grace  to  you,  I  say,  "  In 
God's  name  go,  dear  soul."  If  you  are  a  child  of  God,  you  have  a 
right  to  seek  your  Father's  presence  wherever  you  can  find  him  in 
the  broad  universe,  as  the  bird  flies  Avhere  it  will  in  the  pathless  air. 


44         TEE  LIBEBTF  OF  TEE  GOSPEL. 

The  soul  that  is  found  out  of  Christ ;  the  soul  that  is  awakened 
by  the  fire  of  divine  love ;  the  soul  that  is  learning  to  speak  the 
language  of  Zion  ;  the  soul  that  is  hearing  and  seeing  and  feeling  ac- 
cording as  it  is  taught  of  God — that  soul  is  its  own  legislator.  And 
it  may  go  through  the  tranquility  of  the  unspeaking  Quaker  Church  ; 
it  may  go  through  the  zealous  joyfulness  of  the  Methodist  Church ; 
it  may  go  through  the  polished  coldness  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
or  the  didactic  Congregational  Church  ;  it  may  go  through  the 
stately  and  complex  services  of  the  all-proper  Episcopal  Church ; 
it  may  go  by  the  Bishop,  or  with  him,  or  through  him,  or  over  him, 
or  under  him ;  it  may  go  in  one  way  or  another ;  it  may  go  as  it 
pleases — only  let  it  go,  go,  go  ! 

And  for  all  these  heresies  (they  are  shocking  heresies  I  know,  in 
these  modern  times),  I  plead  the  example  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem, 
that  worshiped  by  making  sacrifices  at  the  altar,  in  the  temple, 
thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Christ.  I  plead  the  example  of  the 
apostles,  which  is  two  thousand  years  old — and  the  age  of  a  thing, 
from  wine  up  to  creeds,  is  generally  a  test  of  its  excellence  ! 

We  are  prepared,  now,  to  consider  some  of  the  difficulties  which 
beset  the  consciences  of  men.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  dis- 
pute among  good  and  conscientious  men  as  to  the  doctrine  of  social 
responsibility ;  as  to  the  liability  of  men  in  regard  to  the  faith  of 
those  whom  they  countenance.  It  has  come  to  pass  that  in  a  certain 
organization  designed  to  work  for  the  spread  of  morality,  where  those 
of  whom  it  is  composed  are  well-taught  orthodox  young  men,  if 
those  who  are  invited  to  cooperate  are  sadly  taught  Unitarian  youths, 
at  first  there  is  great  hesitation  ;  and  secondly,  there  is  more  than 
hesitation — there  is  great  conscientiousness — on  the  part  of  those 
who  are  orthodox.  And  they  say,  "  We  cannot  associate  with  men 
who  deny  the  Lord  that  bought  them.  If  we  do  we  shall  become 
partakers  of  their  sins.  We  shall  be  lending  our  countenance  to  an 
erroneous  belief."  But  we  have  before  us  the  example  of  the 
Apostle,  who  lent  his  countenance  to  an  effete  and  dead  system 
— that  system  which  was  found  in  the  temple,  and  which  Chris- 
tianity was  to  supersede.  To  that  system  Paul  lent  his  counte- 
nance when  he  did  not  believe  in  it.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  altar. 
It  was  a  void,  an  empty  thing  to  him.  But  other  people  believed  in 
it,  and  therefore  he  permitted  it  to  do  its  work  for  him.  He  put 
himself  by  the  side  of  men  who  were  less  instructed  than  he  was  ; 
who  were  wrapped  in  prejudices  ;  he  went  with  them  ;  yea,  and  for 
their  sake,  he  conformed  to  things  externally  that  to  him  were  noth- 
ing. Why  did  he  do  it  ?  On  the  same  principle  on  which  he  made 
himself  "  all  things  to  all  men  " — "  that  he  might  win  some.'''' 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL.  45 

If  a  man  conforms  to  superstitions  because  he  does  not  care  for 
truth,  that  is  wicked;  but  if  a  man  has  a  zeal  of  God,  which  is 
always  a  zeal  of  love,  and  for  the  sake  of  winning  men  to  a  higher 
life,  conforms  to  things  which  he  has  outgrown,  but  which  others 
have  not — that  is  to  say,  acts  by  the  side  of  men  without  coming 
into  unnecessary  jar  and  conflict  with  their  educated  beliefs — he 
does  right. 

'  It  is  a  narrow  orthodoxy  that  cannot  work  with  anything  but 
itself.  God,  that  spreads  the  sun  everywhere  over  the  world,  works 
with  everything — even  with  devils.  And  they  that  are  of  God  feel 
a  certain  omnipresence  of  charity.  And  they  can  include  in  their 
honest  zeal  of  love,  every  human  creature,  high  or  low ;  and  yet 
without  endorsing  their  specific  beliefs  because  they  work  with  them. 
'  When,  during  the  terrible  disaster  at  New  Hamburg,  men  were 
rushing  in  crowds  to  rescue  from  the  wrecked  cars  those  that  were 
in  them,  or  to  drag  from  the  water  those  that  had  been  thrown  into 
it,  do  you  suppose  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  stop  and  say,  "  Are 
you  a  Republican  ?  or  are  you  a  Democrat  ?  Because  I  am  not 
going  to  be  seen  working  alongside  of  a  man  not  of  my  political 
belief,  and  have  people  suppose  that  I  endorse  all  his  abominable 
political  doctrines  ?"  Would  not  that  have  been  monstrous  ?  And 
yet,  in  Brooklyn,  within  my  time,  for  years  and  years,  the  Sunday 
schools  of  the  Unitarian  churches  were  not  allowed  to  walk  in  pro- 
cession with  the  Sunday  schools  of  the  orthodox  churches,  on  anni- 
versary days ;  and  the  Unitarian  churches  had  to  draw  off  their 
schools  and  form  processions  on  other  days  ;  because  it  was  feared 
that  the  little  orthodox  children  would  catch  some  heresy  from  the 
little  Unitarian  children,  if  they  were  allowed  to  walk  with  them  in 
the  streets  !  Over  that  scene,  Christ  was  sad,  and  the  devil  was 
glad  I 

Why,  if  you  have  the  power  of  Christ  with  you ;  if  you  are 
earnest,  honest,  genuine  in  your  love  of  Christ,  and  if,  above  all 
other  things,  you  have  the  gift  of  God,  there  is  not  a  human  being 
on  earth  that  worships,  that  you  cannot  go  and  worshijj  with  him. 
What  if  he  is  not  worthy  ?  You  have  nothing  to  do  with  that. 
You  stand  or  fall  to  your  own  Master.  But  the  zeal  of  love  makes 
you  brother  to  him.  I  could  sit  and  worship  in  many  a  Unitarian 
church  ;  in  many  a  Universalist  church  ;  in  many  a  Swedenborgian 
assembly.  I  could  sit  and  worship  to  edification  in  many  an  old 
hoary  church  of  Rome,  and  in  many  a  High  Episcopal  charch,  I 
could  sit  and  worship  with  my  Methodist  brethren,  or  with  my 
Baptist  brethren.  I  could  go  through  the  water,  if  there  were  any 
moral  end  to  be  secured  by  it.     I  would  not  hesitate  to  be  immersed, 


46  THE  LIBERTY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL. 

as  I  immerse  others,  if  so  I  could  gain  others.  "What  is  immersion 
or  sprinkling  to  me  ?  These  things  are  as  nothing.  They  are  but 
the  straw.  Straw  may  be  very  necessary  to  bear  up  the  wheat ;  but 
when  the  wheat  has  been  borne  up  till  it  has  ripened,  then  I  want 
the  wheat,  and  not  the  straw.  But  churches  often  save  the  straw 
and  chaff",  and  let  the  wheat  go  where  it  will ! 

But  many  feel  bound  to  be  witnesses  for  the  true  religion.  Now, 
I  can  understand  that  in  corrupt  periods,  in  times  of  darkness,  and 
as  a  transient  device  by  which  to  produce  a  moral  impression,  minis- 
ters and  churches  may  hold  themselves  exclusive.  I  can  understand 
that,  where  a  church  has  corrujDted  the  notions  of  the  community, 
a  handful  may  separate  themselves  from  it,  and  refuse  to  commune 
with  it,  without  necessarily  violating  the  spirit  of  love,  because  they 
are  trying  to  make  an  impression  in  favor  of  a  higher  spirituality. 
For  a  limited  period,  and  for  a  specific  purpose,  that  may  be  right ; 
but  ordinarily  such  exclusiveness  would  not  be  right. 

There  be  many  persons  who  will  not  commune  at  the  Lord's 
table  in  their  own  church.  Why  ?  Because  there  is  a  wicked 
family  going  to  sit  down  there,  and  their  conscience  will  not  permit 
them  to  sit  down  at  the  Lord's  Table  with  a  family  that  is  so  no- 
toriously wicked.  It  may  be  that  they  have  taken  the  wickedest 
advantage  of  you ;  it  may  be  that  they  have  robbed  you  of  your 
property  or  your  good  naraie ;  but  they  shall  give  account  of  their 
conduct  to  God,  as  you  shall  of  yours.  You  go  to  the  Lord's 
Table  to  commune  with  your  Lord.  And  you  might  just  as  well  say 
that  you  would  not  live  in  the  same  town  with  these  people,  or  that 
you  would  not  obey  the  same  laws  that  they  obey,  or  that  you  would 
not  drink  water  out  of  the  same  river  that  they  do,  or  that  you 
would  not  take  the  same  sunshine  that  they  take,  or  receive  the 
same  showers  that  they  receive,  as  to  say  that  you  will  not  go  to 
the  same  church  that  they  go  to,  or  sit  at  the  same  table  that  they 
sit  at.  To  your  own  Master  you  stand  or  fall.  You  might  sit  at 
the  Lord's  Table  with  a  pirate  on  one  side  of  you,  and  a  murderer 
on  the  other,  and  it  would  be  no  testimony  that  you  believed  in 
piracy  or  murder.  It  would  simply  be  a  testimony  that  you  sought 
Christ  for  yourself  The  Church  of  England  has  been  thrown  into 
a  nine  days'  horror  because  a  Socinian  scholar  was  allowed  to  sit  at 
the  communion  table  with  orthodox  scholars !  It  was  not  the  Bishop's 
table.  They  were  not  Lords,  giving  entertainments  to  their  Peers. 
They  were  themselves  but  miserable  sinners  asking  God's  grace 
among  other  sinners  equally  miserable. 

Nay,  more  than  that,  if  I  thought  that  by  going  into  an  assembly 
of  heretics  I  could  leaven  heresy  with  orthodoxy,  or  substitute  ortho- 


TEE  LIBEBTY  OF  lEE  GOSPEL.  47 

doxy  for  heresy,  and  replace  lies  by  truth,  I  woi;ld  not  hesitate  to  go 
among  them.  I  will  associate  with  those  that  are  out  of  the  way  if 
I  can  do  good  thereby.  The  whole  theory  of  the  Gospel,  the  whole 
spirit  of  Christ,  is  opposed  to  that  rigidity,  to  that  fear  of  compro- 
mising orthodoxy,  which  has  prevailed  in  the  Christian  Church. 

"  Well,  but,  is  there  not  to  be  a  distinction  between  truth  and 
error,  and  between  good  men  and  bad  men  ?"  Oh,  yes,  righteous- 
ness is  to  be  the  distinction.  A  better  spirit  is  to  be  the  distinction. 
A  truer,  deeper  love  is  to  be  the  distinction.  More  disinterested  zeal  is 
to  be  the  distinction.  A  purer  spirituality  is  to  be  the  distinction. 
The  distinction  between  a  man  and  his  fellow-men  is  not  to  be  in 
the  shape  of  his  hat,  nor  in  the  cut  of  his  coat,  nor  in  the  color  of  his 
garments.  The  marks  of  distinction  are  not  necessarily  to  be  exter- 
nal. You  are  to  be  more  disinterested  than  they  are.  You  are  to  be 
more  free  from  pride  and  anger  than  they  are.  You  are  to  be  more 
richly  bountiful,  more  nobly  generous,  more  truly  liberal,  than  they 
are.     Such  is  to  be  the  distinction  between  you  and  the  woi*ld. 

Here  is  a  miserable  old  cinnamon  rose,  that  does  not  bear  blos- 
soms to  amount  to  anything ;  but  it  is  very  proud  because  it  stands 
in  rich,  yellow  loam.  And  it  has  great  contempt  for  that  dam- 
ask rose,  which  stands  in  gravel  and  naturally  poor  soil,  although  it 
is  covered  with  fine  blossoms.  The  blossoms  on  the  cinnamon  rose 
are  Avretchedly  poor  ;  they  look  like  an  old  bachelor's  niggardly  kiss, 
all  shriveled  and  shrunk  up  ;  but  the  blossoms  on  the  damask  rose  are 
large  and  beautiful  and  fragrant ;  and  yet,  the  cinnamon  rose  will 
not  commune  with  the  damask  rose.  Why  ?  Because  it  stands  in 
sq.cred  yellow  loam !  It  makes  no  account  of  the  fact  that  it  has 
poorer  leaves  and  poorer  blossoms,  and  is  poorer  every  way,  than  the 
other  rose. 

And  so  it  is  with  Christians.  You  shall  see  poor,  starveling 
Christians  in  fair  pots,  and  rich,  plump,  blossoming  Christians  in 
poor  pots.  Here  is  a  miserable,  leafless,  blossomless  Christian  ;  but 
he  has  got  into  a  High-Church  pot ;  and  he  will  not  speak  to  one 
of  those  great  blossom-bearing  Methodist  people  in  that  vulgar  tub  ! 

Is  it  not  time,  now  that  Christianity  has  traveled  down  as  far  as 
to  our  day,  that  at  last  we  should  learn  that  in  Christ  Jesus  all  are 
one,  and  that  the  point  of  unity  does  not  lie  in  creeds,  nor  in  Church 
forms,  nor  in  Church  ceremonies,  nor  in  Church  governments,  nor 
in  Church  polity.  The  unity  which  Christ  came  to  bring  into  the 
world,  is  that  which  comes  from  that  higher  state  of  mind  which  is 
the  spirit  of  universal  love.     There  we  are  to  stand  together. 

Lastly,  this  history  will  throw  a  light  upon  the  spirit  of  modem 
reformation.     Tlierc  are  many  men  who  think  you  are  not  sincere  if 


48  THE  LIBEBTY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL. 

you  do  not  tell  all  you  know,  and  just  as  soon  as  it  dawns  on  you. 
And  so,  what  they  got  yesterday,  they  empty  themselves  of  to-day ; 
and  what  they  get  to-day  they  will  empty  themselves  of  to-morrow. 
There  are  many  who  think  the  truth  must  not  be  withheld,  and  that 
they  must  be  forever  gushing,  gushing,  gushing.  There  are  many 
who  suppose  that  if  a  man  thinks  anything,  he  must  of  necessity  say 
it ;  and  that  to  withhold  it  is  suppression ;  and  that  to  adapt  it  to  the 
growing  necessities  of  the  community  is  inconsistent  with  sincerity. 

Now,  that  a  man  may  have  interested  reasons  for  withholding 
the  truth,  is  certain  ;  but  if  a  man  is  to  let  out  all  he  knows  and 
thinks  on  all  occasions,  then  there  are  no  such  hypocrites  as  school- 
masters— unless  it  be  mothers.  A  mother  does  not  tell  her  dear 
little  daughter  everything  that  she  knows — not  when  she  is  five 
years  old.  When  she  is  five  years  old,  she  tells  her  what  she  needs 
to  know  at  five  years  of  age.  And  when  she  is  ten  years  old,  she 
tells  her  a  great  deal  more.  And  when  she  is  fifteen  years  old  she 
tells  her  a  great  many  more  things.  The  mother  adapts  her  telling 
to  the  need  and  capacity  of  the  child.  For  love  rules.  And  the  ob- 
ject of  truth  is  not  to  make  a  man  stand  as  a  light-house  and  shine 
out  his  own  glory.  Truth  is  food  that  we  feed  to  the  soul  ;  and  we 
are  to  adapt  it  to  the  soul,  as  we  adapt  food  to  children.  It  is 
medicine  ;  and  we  must  use  it  as  medicine.  If,  therefore,  withhold- 
ing works  best  for  the  cause  of  truth,  withhold ;  and  if  speaking 
works  best  for  the  cause  of  truth,  speak.  We  are  not  half  so  much 
under  obligation  to  speak  all  the  truth  as  we  are  to  keep  the  iTnity 
of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  perfectness.  We  owe  more  allegiance  to 
love  than  to  anything  else. 

The  heart  is  my  master.  It  is  the  heart  that  God  ci'owns.  With 
the  heart  man  believes  xanto  salvation.  We  are  to  strive,  therefore, 
to  keep  our  hearts  right.  And  in  working  for  others,  our  object 
should  be  to  make  the  right  impression  on  their  hearts.  I  mean  to 
make  men  better ;  and  sometimes  I  do  it  by  silence,  and  sometimes 
by  oral  instruction.  And  I  have  a  right  to  exercise  my  judgment  as 
to  the  method  which  it  is  best  for  me  to  pursue. 

I  do  not  preach  here  everything  that  I  think.  Why  do  I  not  ? 
Because  I  do  not  know  that  I  believe  it  yet.  There  is  nothing  in 
this  world  that  requires  such  long  seasoning  and  ripening  as  new 
thoughts.  Men  seem  to  think  that  the  pulpit  ought  to  be  like  an 
apple-press  where  greedy  boys  run,  and  each  sticks  his  straw  into 
tlie  vat,  and  sucks  the  unfermented  juice.  The  farmer  would  say  to 
the  boys,  "  No,  let  the  juice  stand,  and  let  the  impurities  be  worked 
off";  and  then,  in  six  or  eight  months,  you  will  see  the  real,  true  cider, 
or  wine  of  the  apples."     And  so  it  is  with  truth.     It  takes  longer  for 


TEE  LIBEETY  OF  TEE  GOSPEL.  49 

the  trutli  to  work  itself  free  from  impurities  than  any  other  thing. 
And  only  after  it  has  some  age  do  you  know  the  real  quality  of 
truth.  And  who  am  I  that  I  should  undertake  to  explore  the  illimit- 
able fields  of  truth  !  The  truth  requires  ages  and  the  concurrent 
thoughts  of  myriads  of  men  to  give  it  confirmation,  God  does  not 
reveal  the  truth  through  single  heads,  but  by  multitudes  and  thi-ough 
the  ages. 

Therefore,  for  a  man  who  has  a  brilliant  idea  to  rush  at  once 
into  publicity  with  it,  is  not  acting  in  the  spirit  of  true  charity,  nor 
according  to  the  dictates  of  sound  philosophy.  It  is  not  the  duty ' 
of  investigators  to  make  known  their  discoveries,  or  fancied  discov- 
eries, instantly.  I  would  say  to  every  young  preacher  or  teacher, 
You  are  not  bound  to  say  things  just  because  you  have  thought  of 
them,  or  because  they  seem  to  you  to  be  true.  You  have  a  higher 
mission.  You  are  sent  into  the  world  to  lead  men  to  God  and  heaven. 
And  it  is  your  business,  as  far  as  you  can,  to  do  it  by  old  truths. 
But  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  for  you  to  have  newer  truths,  if  you 
can  find  them,  use  them.  I  am  bound  to  take  care  of  God's  children, 
that  are  so  dear  to  him.  My  children,  the  babes  that  blossomed  in 
my  household,  were  dear  to  me  as  myself,  and  were  a  part  of  myself; 
and  into  what  paroxysms  of  indignation  would  I  have  been  thrown 
if  any  nurse  had  played  experiments  on  those  babes !  And  God 
looks  with  indignation  upon  men  who  are  playing  fantastic  tricks 
with  his  children,  by  their  crude  philosophies  and  half-fledged  notions 
of  theology,  no  matter  under  what  names  they  are  doing  it. 

Your  allegiance  is  to  God,  and  to  the  souls  of  your  fellow-men ; 
and  these  other  things  are  subsidiary  and  instrumental.  The  great 
end  to  be  sought  is  the  elevation,  the  ennobling,  and  the  salvation 
of  men.  Do  not  lose  sight  of  that,  whatever  means  your  judgment 
may  lead  you  to  employ  in  bringing  it  about.  And  remember  that 
they  who  turn  many  from  their  sins,  shall  themselves  at  last  shine 
as  stars  in  heaven. 


50  TEE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON.* 

Again,  blessed  SavioHr,  thou  hast  been  in  our  midst,  and  little  children 
have  come  unto  thee.  Thou  hast  called  them.  Thou  hast  taken  them,  as  it 
were,  in  thine  arms,  and  laid  thine  hands  upon  them,  and  blessed  them. 
Bless  them  from  day  to  day.  And  grant  that  the  blessing  of  love  and  wis- 
dom in  their  parents  may  be  to  them  as  a  crown  of  gladness  all  the  days  of 
their  life.  Oh,  how  many  weary  steps  must  their  little  feet  tread !  Oh,  how 
many  unknown  ways  must  they  pursue!  What  storms  shall  beat  upon 
them !  No  love  can  shelter  them  from  pain,  and  sorrow,  and  temptation, 
and  sin,  and  repentance,  and  sin  again.  They  must  take  up  their  march  in 
the  long  and  weary  procession  which  has  been  moving  through  the  world 
since  the  race  began. 

God  of  our  fathers,  and  our  God,  whose  mercy  has  been  upon  us,  and  in 
whose  strength  we  have  been  able  to  walk,  and  whose  love  has  watched  over 
us,  and  whose  spirit  has  been  breathed  into  us,  vouchsafe  tbat  same  mercy 
to  these  little  ones  that  has  been  vouchsafed  to  us.  And  grant  that  their 
lives  may  be  preserved.  Or,  if  they  are  ordained  to  go  early,  grantthat  their 
parents  may  be  comforted,  and  that  they  may  be  purified  by  zeal  for  the 
inheritance  of  life. 

We  pray  that  in  all  the  families  of  this  Church  the  truth  may  abide,  as 
in  a  temple.  And  wl  il  >  parents  have  their  children  with  them,  may  they 
guide  them ;  and  may  they  not  forget,  from  day  to  day,  to  give  thanks  to 
God  for  all  the  mercy  which  he  has  bestowed  upon  them  through  their  chil- 
dren. For  the  joy  which  they  have  had,  for  the  instruction  which  they 
have  received  while  instructing  their  children,  for  all  that  they  have  learned 
of  Christlike  ways,  for  all  that  they  have  learned  of  self-sacrifice,  by  giving 
their  lives  for  the  lives  of  others,  may  they  give  thee  thanks. 

And  we  pray  that  wherever  thy  Spirit  dwells  in  any  household,  it  may  be 
rich  and  strong.  And  in  any  household  where  the  light  of  thy  love  is  not, 
let  it  be  kindled.  Let  there  be  no  family  in  our  midst  which  has  not  an  altar 
of  Devotion.  Let  no  parent  who  is  attempting  to  rear  a  household  of  chil- 
dren, be  ignorant  of  God  from  whom  all  their  mercies  come.  We  pray  that 
parents  may  be  a  blessing  to  their  children,  and  that  children  may  be  ables- 
ing  to  their  parents.  And  may  they  both  live  in  the  purest  joy  which  is 
possible  to  this  hither  life.  Grant  that  they  may  live  with  something  of  im- 
mortality in  that  life. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God !  that  thou  wilt  grantto  this  whole 
Church  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  May  the  young  that  are  in  our  midst  come  up 
continually  in  memory  before  us.  May  we  pray  for  them,  in  the  sanctuary 
and  in  the  household.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  the 
prayers  of  parents  that  can  no  longer  be  heard  on  earth,  for  their  children, 
may  at  last  be  effectual ;  and  may  many  be  brought  back  by  the  memory  of 
the  petitions  of  their  father  and  mother  in  their  behalf.  And  may  the  teach- 
ings of  their  parents  at  last  take  effect,  and  they  be  held  by  a  secret  anchor 
amidst  the  currents  and  storms  of  life. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  that  labor  for  the  young,  in  Sabbath- 
schools  and  Bible-classes.  We  pray  for  thy  blessing  upon  teachers  that  in 
schools  are  from  day  to  day  seeking  to  instill  knowledge,  and  especially  that 
knowledge  which  is  the  foundation  of  a  virtuous  character,  into  the  minds 
of  those  that  are  under  their  charge.  May  they  more  and  more  feel  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  and  be  sustained  by  the  comforting  hope  of  immortality. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  remember  those  who  have  none  to  care  for 
them ;  whose  parents  are  their  worst  foes.    Raise  up  friends  for  those  who 
*  Immediately  following  the  baptism  of  children. 


TEE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  51 

are  outcasts.  May  they  be  rescued  from  temptations  that  are  carrying  them 
away  as  a  flood. 

Aud  may  this  whole  community  be  cleansed  of  immorality  and  of  ani- 
malism. And  more  aud  more  may  men  believe  in  morality  and  virtue  and 
true  piety.  May  men  learn  the  things  that  pertain  to  a  true  charity.  We 
pray  that  thou  wilt  cleanse  the  hearts  of  men  from  all  bitterness,  and  all 
evil  and  malign  passions,  and  all  things  that  are  unholy.  And  we  pray  that 
the  whole  community  among  whom  we  dwell  may  be  shaped  more  and  more 
to  the  true  forms  which  religion  inspires. 

Bless  thy  Churches  that  are  laboring  for  thy  cause.  May  they  have  relig- 
ion from  on  high.  Aud  through  their  instrumentality  may  thy  people  be 
brought  more  and  more  unto  thee.  We  pray  for  the  spread  of  thy  Gospel 
throughout  our  land.  We  pray  for  its  establishment  where  it  has  not  yet 
gained  a  footing.  We  pray  for  its  perfect  work  where  it  is  but  imperfectly 
developed.  We  pray  for  its  power  to  reform  laws  and  magistracies  where- 
ever  they  need  the  touch  of  the  Gospel  light. 

And  we  pray  that  thy  kingdom  may  come,  not  only  in  our  land,  but  in 
all  lands  throughout  the  earth.  Pity  the  conditions  of  men.  Make  haste, 
thou  that  hast  given  thy  Son  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  that  in 
love  wilt  make  that  sacrifice  effectual— make  haste.  Let  not  the  years  long 
delay,  but  bring  to  pass  the  glory  of  thy  perfect  state— the  latter-day  glory. 

Aud  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.— ^men. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bring  us  back  again  into  the  Spirit 
of  our  Master,  and  into  the  spirit  of  the  Apostles.  May  we  be  ashamed  of 
our  childish  faiths  in  things  external.  May  we  take  them  or  reject  them  as 
we  take  or  reject  garments  of  colors.  May  we  seek  charity  out  of  a  pure 
heart  and  a  good  conscience.  May  we  seek  to  live  in  the  spirit  of  true  love. 
And  bring  us  at  last  to  that  haven  where  we  shall  see  thee,  and  all  shadows 
shall  depart,  and  truth  shall  become  to  us  as  the  breath  of  our  life.  And 
to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  forever  more.— Amen. 


IIL 

JLove-Service. 


"We  thank  thee,  O  Most  High,  that  thou  dwellest  -with  the  humble,  and 
that  we  need  not  ascend  into  the  heaven.  Thou  art  everywhere.  Help  us 
this  morning  to  find  thee.  May  we  understand  thy  call  of  the  soul — the 
voice  of  thy  Spirit  in  our  spirit.  And  in  thy  sanctuary  may  we  find  our 
home.  May  our  hearts  rest  from  care,  from  the  disturbance  of  passion, 
from  all  wayward  influences,  from  doubt,  from  fear,  from  the  sense  of  guilt 
May  we  have  this  morning  the  confidence  of  children.  May  we  draw  near 
to  our  Father,  and  there  may  we  find  the  amenity  of  love,  and  all  helpful- 
ness and  pity.  And  grant  that  the  service  of  the  sanctuary  may  be  Inspired, 
of  thee.  Help  us  to  sing  thy  praise,  and  to  join  one  with  another  in  singing. 
Help  us  to  pray.  Help  us  to  speak  and  to  listen.  And  everywhere,  this  day- 
may  we  find  thee  present,  and  thy  service  a  great  joy.  Wtiich  we  ask  for 
Christ's  sake.  Amen. 
3. 


LOVE-SERYICE. 


"  For,  brethren,  ye  have  been  called  unto  liberty  ;  only  use  not  liberty 
for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  by  love  serve  one  another.  For  all  the  law 
is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this ;  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself."— Gal.  v.  13, 14. 


There  is  almost  universal  approbation  given  to  the  doctrine  of 
benevolence.  This  is  the  point  in  which  almost  all  sects  of  religion 
converge  and  agree  ;  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  the  church  and  the 
world  seem  more  likely  to  come  to  an  agreement  than  anywhere 
else.  For  I  hear  men  of  every  sort  speaking  about  the  beauty  of 
Christ's  loving  character.  I  hear  men  inveighing  against  clear 
philosophical  statements  as  being  not  the  food  of  the  Gospel,  which 
is  love.  And  when  wickedness  is  rebuked,  it  is  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus  that  men  say  that  they  want  to  hear  about,  and  not 
the  acerb  and  authoritative  commander  of  virtue.  Men  boast 
themselves  that  "  they  have  not  much  religion ;  but  then,  they 
have  a  great  deal  of  kindness."  They  are  very  kind  at  home.  They 
are  very  kind  in  their  neighborhood.  They  will  sometimes  tell  you 
that  they  do  not  know  how  to  sing  as  many  hymns,  perhaps,  as 
their  neighbors  ;  but  that  they  give  away  more  to  the  poor.  And 
so,  while  one  plumes  himself  upon  piety,  another  offsets  that,  in  his 
own  case,  with  charity.  And  you  will  hear  men  talking  amono- 
themselves  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  common  consent,  and  almost 
of  imiversal  acceptance,  that  religion  requires  true  benevolence. 
Yet,  whenever  true  benevolence  in  the  Scriptural  and  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  term  is  fairly  opened  to  men,  not  only  is  there  nothino- 
that  they  are  so  loth  to  accept,  but  they  positively  deny  its  exist- 
ence, and  the  possibility  of  its  existence.  And  there  is  no  other  one 
test  that  is  so  searching,  so  penetrating,  so  sin-convicting,  so  despair- 
inspiring,  as  this  simple  test — good-will — disinterested  benev- 
olence. 

Now,  the  passage  that  we  read  contains  inconspicuously  in  it  the 
very  criterion,  in  one  single  word ; 

SuNBAY  Morning,  Mar.  26,1871.  Lesson:  Eph.  m.     Hymns  (Plymouth  Colleo- 
tlon) :  Nos.  31,  431,  12i>'J. 


56  LOYE-SEBVICE. 

"  Brethren,  use  not  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  by  love  serv6 
one  another." 

The  translated  word,  is,  perhaps,  as  good  as  any  that  we  have, 
because  it  is  not  English  to  say,  "  Slave  one  another ;"  but  that  is 
the  original.  The  verb  has  the  same  root  as  the  substantive  ;  and 
it  signifies,  to  serve  as  the  slave  serves  the  master.  We  are,  there- 
fore, in  the  service  of  love,  to  fulfill  to  each  other  the  duties  of  love 
as  the  faithful  slave  fulfills  his  duties  to  the  man  that  owns  him. 

And  what,  in  the  most  general  aspect,  is  the  peculiarity  of  the 
service  of  a  slave  ?  It  is  this  :  that  he  takes  the  forces  of  his  own 
nature  for  another's  benefit,  and  not  for  his  own.  That  is  the  ideal. 
A  true  and  willing  and  faithful  slave  thinks  for  the  master ;  works 
for  the  master  ;  feels  for  the  master  ;  puts  himself  in  the  master's 
place ;  and  uses  all  the  power  he  has,  not  for  his  own  individual 
good,  but  for  the  good  of  the  master.  Tlierefore  says  the  apostle, 
"We  are  so  to  live  that  we  shall  slave  it  for  each  other."  It  is  the 
crucial  test,  it  is  the  innermost  nature,  it  is  the  real  characteristic 
of  a  true  love,  to  be  willing  to  serve  another.  Benevolence  is 
well-wishing,  doubtless ;  and  it  often  flows  from  men  without  re- 
quiring sacrifice  ;  but  when  there  is  need,  all  true  love  has  in  it  the 
capacity  and  necessity  of  sufiering  for  another.  And  when  the  time 
comes,  any  love  that  fails  there,  shows  that  it  had  no  root,  no 
reality  ;  that  it  was  a  superficial  quality  ;  that  it  was  an  imitation, 
and  not  a  genuine  article.  For  that  which  makes  the  difference  be- 
tween a  true  love  and  a  merely  imitative  love,  is  this  :  that  a  true 
love  always  carries  m  it  a  power  of  self-negation,  and  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  of  suffering  for  another. 

Consider  whether  this  is  so  in  life.  Look  at  that  form  of  affec- 
tion which  passes  by  the  general  name  of  friendship.  We  may 
make  a  distinction  between  an  acquaintance  and  a  friend.  Although 
in  the  most  ordinary  conversation  we  speak  of  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances as  almost  the  same,  yet  every  one  knows  that  there  is  a  differ- 
ence— that  there  are  some  friends  that  we  clasp  to  ourselves  as 
we  do  not  those  that  are  merely  our  ordinary  and  j)leasant  ac- 
quaintances. 

NoAV,  when  you  have  analyzed  it  to  the  root,  that  which  makes 
the  difference  between  these  and  common  friends,  is,  that  there  is  an 
element  of  disinterestedness  in  a  true  and  in  a  model  friendship.  It 
is  giving  to  a  friend  that  which  the  spirit  of  friendship  requires 
that  we  should  give,  not  only  without  return,  but  without  a  thought 
of  return.  It  often  is  the  glory  of  a  gift  that  it  is  so  given  that 
there  can  be  no  return — that  there  is  no  commercial  element  in  it. 
It  is  helping  one  at  our  own  expense,  when  it  is  needful,  that  marks 


LOYE-SEBVICE.  57 

fricndsliip.  It  is  assuming  another's  life,  as  it  were,  and  making  it 
our  own.  It  is  fidelity  in  the  presence  of  suffering.  It  is  taking  the 
care,  and  sorrow,  and  loss,  and  trouble,  of  another  as  if  it  were  our 
own.  It  is  putting  our  souls  under  another  man's  soul,  and  hearing 
him,  as  it  were.     It  is  carrying  one  another's  burdens. 

Hence,  there  are  very  few  friendships.  There  are  many  pleasant 
acquaintances,  and  there  are  many  acquaintances  that  are  gilded 
with  friendship  ;  but  it  is  only  now  and  then  that  you  find,  where 
two  come  together,  and  love  each  other,  that  one  stands  everywhere 
for  the  other,  in  good  and  in  ill,  in  prosperity  and  in  adversity,  so 
that  one  goes  uj)  and  goes  down  with  the  other.  There  are  few 
friendships  of  that  kind.  In  other  words,  there  are  few  friendships 
which  carry  in  them  the  root  of  the  matter,  which  is  disinterested- 
ness. The  power  and  the  willingness  to  serve  and  to  suffer — that  does 
not  inhere  in  the  ordinary  swarms  and  droves  of  worldly  friendships. 
Ordinarily,  friendships  are  mere  commercial  arrangements.  They 
are  bargains  between  the  easy  affections,  one  saying  to  another, 
"  You  make  me  happy,  and  I  will  make  you  happy  ;  and  as  long  as 
you  make  me  happy,  you  are  my  friend  ;  but  when  you  cannot  do  it 
any  longer,  then  we  go  apart,"  That  is  the  way  of  the  world.  What 
is  generally  called  friendship,  is  an  exchange  of  commodities  of 
happiness.  For  the  most  part,  hearts  are  shopped,  friendship  is  a 
bargain,  and  friends  are  traffickers.  But  there  are  friendships  that 
are  higher ;  and  there  are  friends  that  are  so  bound  together  that  if 
one  is  sick  the  other  is  by  his  side ;  and  the  sickness  of  the  one  is 
almost  as  if  it  were  in  the  body  of  the  other.  The  weal  or  the  woe 
is  common  to  them.  There  are  men  who  clasp  men.  There  are 
friendships  between  woman  and  woman  that  are  as  i)ure  and  as  deej} 
as  it  is  possible  to  be  ;  and  they  have  the  peculiar  quality  of  serving 
in  ,them  to  such  a  degree  that  each  is  the  slave  of  the  other.  Each 
knows  how  to  give  everything  for  the  other. 

You  cannot  have  a  great  many  such  friendships.  They  are  too 
costly.  There  is  not  time  to  cultivate  many  of  them.  One  or  two 
are  about  as  many  as  a  man  can  attend  to  in  this  world.  You  can 
have  kindly  feelings  toward  multitudes  ;  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
matter  of  serving,  and  when  your  conscience  is  another  man's  con- 
science, and  when  your  heart,  like  a  bell,  is  struck  every  time  he  is 
in  trouble,  it  is  about  as  much  as  you  can  find  time  to  do  to  take 
care  of  that  one  man.  But,  in  general,  there  is  an  inaptitude  to  this. 
Nature  has  not  learned  this  higher  lesson  with  much  facility. 

There  is  a  state,  however,  beyond  this.  This  friendship  of  which 
I  have  been  speaking,  is  a  friendship  in  which  there  is  no  passion  ; 
but  where  friendship  ripens  into  what  we  call  love,  it  is  something 


58  LOYE-SEBYICE. 

beyond  common  friendship,  excluding  from  it  the  ordinary  concom- 
itants of  passion,  which  in  the  order  of  nature  attend  it,  but  which 
are  casual,  and  relative  to  a  transient  state  of  existence,  cleansing  it 
from  these  mere  terrene  elements,  and  coming  to  that  which  is  true 
love — which  is  characteristic  of  it — which  is  the  root  of  it.  In  love, 
more  even  than  in  friendship,  is  the  power  to  serve  another  ;  or,  in 
other  words,  the  power  to  put  one's  being,  all  aflame  with  intensity 
of  unselfishness,  into  another's  atmosphere.  It  is  the  power  of  one 
soul  to  so  identify  itself  with  another  that  they  scarcely,  for  the 
time  being,  are  distinguishable — and  that,  not  from  passion,  nor  from 
sentiment,  nor  from  necessity,  but  simply  from  a  true,  deep  aiFection. 

Men  do  not  think  of  love  so,  because  there  are  so  very  few  who 
rise  to  that  experience  of  a  true  affection.  And  they  give  their 
heart  grudgingly.  Most  of  what  is  called  love  in  this  world  has 
stolen  a  precious  name  to  cover  a  vile  surface  of  the  passions.  But 
when  men  do  truly  love,  there  is  an  enthusiasm  in  it ;  there  is  a  self- 
renunciation  in  it ;  there  is  an  intense  desire  to  make  another  happy ; 
there  is  almost  the  forgetting  of  one's  own  existence ;  there  is  a 
carelessness  about  one's  own  happiness ;  there  is  a  sense  of  the 
honor  of  another ;  there  is  a  wish  for  that  other's  growth  ;  there 
is  a  power  and  an  energy  put  forth  in  developing  the  life  of  the  loved 
one,  as  if  your  life  lay  in  it. 

Men  have  a  glimpse  of  this  in  the  earlier  stages  of  that  which 
terminates  in  wedded  love.  Every  ingenuous  young  man  and  maiden, 
when  they  come  together  with  a  sincere  and  honorable  affection, 
know  some  hours  in  which  each  is  quite  forgetful  of  self  Their 
thought  of  life  is  to  honor  each  other,  and  to  lift  each  other  up, 
and  to  glorify  each  other.  And  that  is  the  nearest  to  the  angelic 
experience  that  these  persons  ever  come.  Alas !  that  such  love 
should  be  like  the  hyacinth.  It  throws  its  blossom  up  early  in  the 
Spring ;  and  it  is  quickly  gone,  sweet  as  it  is.  Before  ever  May  is 
half  passed  the  blossom  is  withered,  a  few  brown  leaves  lie  with- 
ering on  the  ground,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  summer  nothing  but 
the  bulb  lies  in  the  dirt.  And  so  unworthy,  so  poor,  so  mean,  is  the 
termination  of  too  many,  too  many,  of  those  attachments  which  be- 
gan in  honor,  which  went  on  in  beauty,  and  which  showed  some 
touches  of  genuine  love,  in  that  there  were  hours,  or  days,  in  which 
true  hearts  loved  with  a  desire  to  serve,  and  not  to  be  served. 

But  there  is  no  friendship,  and  there  is  no  love,  like  that  ol  the 
parent  to  the  child — that  is,  the  typical  parent ;  for  there  are  all 
grades  of  development  in  parentage.  When  there  is  great  strength 
of  nature,  great  breadth  of  understanding,  great  richness  of  moral 
nature,  and  great  affection ;  when  all  these  cohere  symmetrically 


LOYE-SEEVICE.  59 

and  wisely,  then  the  love  of  the  parent  to  the  child  comes  nearer,  I 
suppose,  to  divinity,  than  anything  else  that  we  can  find  in  this 
world.  There  is  nothing  else  on  earth  that  conies  more  near  to  it. 
The  parent's  love  is  not  one  that  exercises  itself  in  exigencies 
only.  The  whole  drift  of  thought,  in  the  voluntary  and  unconscious 
love  of  every  parent,  surrounds  the  household  and  the  children. 

A  boy  is  born.  The  parents  are  poor.  On  a  penurious  farm  they 
are  rearing  their  children — five,  six,  seven,  eight — for  God  pays 
poverty  with  better  coin  than  gold  and  silver.  There  is  one  boy  set 
apart  for  an  education.  He  will  be  the  glory  of  the  house.  Not 
only  do  the  father  and  the  mother  think  it,  but  with  almost  super- 
natural ingenuity  they  work  to  accomplish  it.  Why,  that  old  farm 
is  vexed,  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  it,  by  the  love  of  those  par- 
ents, that  they  may  make  it  wring  out  a  little  more,  that  there  may  be 
something  saved ;  for  that  boy  must  be  sent  to  college.  And  early,  long 
before  the  birds  are  stirring,  they  are  up  ;  and  late,  when  the  chil- 
dren are  far  along  in  their  dreams,  father  and  mother  are  still  toiling. 
Brown  is  their  skin,  like  parchment ;  but  oh !  what  lore  there  is  in 
such  parchment !  What  stories  such  brown  faces  tell !  They  toil 
through  ten,  through  fifteen  years ;  and  they  are  able,  at  last,  to 
send  their  darling  boy  away.  What  bone  could  do,  what  muscle 
could  do,  what  nerve  could  do,  what  courage  could  do,  what  patience 
could  do,  what  perseverence  could  do,  day  and  night,  through  years 
and  yeai'S,  they  did  ;  they  denied  themselves  necessary  food,  they 
went  scantily  clad,  mortifying  their  pride,  and  carrying  themselves 
in  apparel  among  their  fellow-men  more  mean  than  any  others  ;  and 
all  that  they  might  husband  and  hoard  a  little  pittance  that  should 
educate  their  darling  boy.  And  he  may  be  said  to  light,  by  the 
marrow  of  father  and  mother,  the  candle  by  which  he  gains  his  edu- 
cation. And  so,  for  years  they  are  on  the  treadmill  of  inexorable 
industry.  And  at  last — oh,  woesome  day — no  such  eclipse  ever 
happens  in  the  heaven,  when  the  sun  ceases  to  shine,  as  come  to  that 
father's  and  that  mother's  heart ! — the  boy  has  disgraced  himself, 
and  is  expelled  !  Oh,  sun !  forget  to  shine.  Oh,  moon  !  let  night 
cover  thee  with  darkness.  What  tears  !  What  anguish  !  What 
heartaches,  that  will  not  groan,  and  cannot  groan!  What  dead 
people  they  are,  that  grope  at  noonday,  and  know  not  whither  to 
go !  Yes,  the  boy  is  disgraced,  and  is  cast  out !  For  him  they  had 
given  everything.  Where  shall  he  go  ?  What  shall  he  do  ?  He 
shall  go  home.  There  arc  father  and  mother ;  and  there  are  not  on 
earth  any  others  that  will  take  him  so  knidly,  that  will  listen  to 
every  word  that  he  says  so  patiently,  that  will  soothe  his  shame, 
that  will  build  him  up  again,  and  that  will  go  on  another  term  of 


60  LOYE-SEEYICE, 

service  to  put  him  forward,  like  father  and  mother,  when  they  love 
with  a  love  that  knows  how  to  serve. 

Is  not  that  the  genuine  article  ?  Is  not  that  the  typical  idea  ?  Is 
not  that  the  love  from  which  you  ought  to  take  your  idea  of  what 
benevolent  love  is  in  life  ?  Serving  one  another — is  there  no  such 
thing  as  that  in  this  world  ?  I  tell  you,  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
gold  that  is  not  generally  recognized.  And  there  are  a  great  many 
mines  of  treasure,  if  people  would  only  search  for  them. 

I  have  gone  through  these  familiar  instances  to  show  you  what 
I  mean  by  a  true  love,  in  distinction  from  a  selfish  or  commercial 
one.  It  is  a  love  that  gives  everything,  and  does  not  ask  nor  take. 
It  is  a  love  that  serves.  "  Serve  one  another  in  love,"  says  the 
apostle. 

Is  this  that  which  is  meant  in  the  Scripture  ?  Is  this  that  benev- 
olence which  the  Bible  speaks  of,  and  means  to  inculcate  as  the  law 
of  a  God  of  love,  as  the  law  of  the  universal  realm,  as  the  eternal 
law  ?     Yes,  this  is  it.     Of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

First,  let  us  see  whether  our  Saviour  taught  that,  when  he  said 
what  he  did  to  his  disciples,  on  one  of  the  most  memorable  occasions 
in  his  life : 

"  He  [Jesus]  riseth  from  supper,  [this  was  just  preceding  his  passion  and 
crucifixion],  and  laid  aside  his  garments :  and  took  a  towel,  and  girded  him- 
self [this  was  the  way  that  slaves  usually  did.  He  laid  aside  his  garments, 
and  put  on  service-garments].  After  that  he  poureth  water  into  a  basin, 
and  began  to  wash  the  disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel 
wherewith  he  was  girded.  Then  cometh  he  to  Simon  Peter ;  and  Peter  saith 
unto  him,  Lord,  dost  thou  wash  my  feet?  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto 
him,  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now;  but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter. 
Peter  saith  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet.  Jesus  answered  him, 
If  I  wash  thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me.  Simon  Peter  saith  unto  him. 
Lord,  not  my  feet  only,  but  also  my  hands  and  my  head.  Jesus  saith  to 
him.  He  that  is  washed  needeth  not  save  to  wash  his  feet,  but  is  clean  every 
whit ;  and  ye  are  clean,  but  not  all.  For  he  knew  who  should  betray  him; 
therefore  said  he.  Ye  are  not  all  clean.  So  after  he  had  washed  their  feet, 
and  had  taken  his  garments,  and  was  set  down  again,  he  said  unto  them,  [they 
were  all  full  of  amazement,  unquestionably:  they  did  not  know  what  it 
could  mean,  that  he  should  be  seized  with  such  a  sudden  start,  and  get  up 
from  the  table,  and  go  round  and  wash  their  feet,  and  then  put  on  his  gar- 
ments, and  come  back  to  the  table  and  sit  down.  They  could  not  make  it 
out.  And  so  he  explains  it.]  Know  ye  what  I  have  done  to  you  ?  Ye  call  me 
Master  and  Lord :  and  ye  say  well ;  for  so  I  am.  If  I,  then,  your  Lord  and 
Master,  have  washed  your  feet ;  ye  ought  also  to  wash  one  another's  feet. 
For  I  have  given  you  an  example,  [an  ordinance — a  symbolical  act],  that 
ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  The  ser- 
vant is  not  greater  than  his  lord  ;  neither  he  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that 
sent  him." 

"  Here,  then,"  says  Christ,  "  is  the  law  of  your  life.  Wash  one 
another's  feet,  as  the  symbolic  image  of  that  service  of  true  love 
and  benevolence  which  is  the  essential  element  of  the  divine  law." 


LOYE-SJSBVICE.  61 

Look,  now,  at  the  expansions  of  this  idea,  as  they  are  given  in  the' 
letters  of  Paul.  Take,  for  instance,  the  second  of  Philippians, 
beginning  with  the  fifth  verse  : 

"  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus :  who,  being  in 
the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God  ;  but  made 
himself  of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was 
made  in  the  likeness  of  men  ;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  hum- 
bled himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which 
is  above  every  name :  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  meaning  of  Christ's  sacrifice.  These 
declarations  of  the  Saviour  himself,  and  these  expository  utter- 
ances of  the  apostles,  show  what  was  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  And 
this  sacrifice  is  the  most  magnificent  exemplification  of  that  inher- 
ent sacrifice  which  goes  with  all  true  love.  There  is  in  it,  there  is 
at  the  bottom  of  it,  there  is  as  its  fundamental  quality,  and  its  dis- 
criminating element,  that  power  of  sufiering  and  serving.  How 
much  you  love  anything  can  be  easily  measured  by  how  much  you 
will  sufl'er  for  it — by  how  much  you  will  serve  for  it.  If  you  will 
serve  none,  then  you  love  none.  If  you  will  serve  but  little, 
then  you  love  but  little.  If  you  will  serve  a  great  deal,  then  you 
love  a  great  deal.  And  if  you  will  serve  utterly,  you  thoroughly 
love.  What  was  the  meaning  of  this  sacrifice,  what  its  relations 
were  on  the  side  of  God,  only  God  knows ;  but  in  so  far  as  as  we 
are  concerned,  the  sufiering  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  the  sub- 
lime and  universal  exhibition  of  divine  love,  and  of  the  peculiar 
quality  of  all  true  love.  The  power  and  willingness  to  sufier  and  to 
serve — that  is  the  core  of  divinity.  It  is  not  thinking  power,  it  is 
not  creative  power,  it  is  love  power,  that  is  the  essential  test  of 
divinity. 

Men  want  to  know  whether  Christ  is  divine,  and  they  test  him 
as  a  chemist  would  test  the  quality  of  any  substance.  They,  a»  it 
were,  take  a  pair  of  scales,  and  throw  one  text  on  this  side,  and  one 
in  that  side  ;  and  then  they  throw  another  on  this  side,  and  another 
in  that  side ;  and  then  they  say,  "  If  I  had  one  more  text  for 
this  side,  I  think  divinity  would  weigh  down  the  other  side."  And 
they  hunt  for  another  text.  And  so  they  weigh  the  divinity  of 
Christ  as  though  it  were  a  ponderable  element.  But  it  is  not  mag- 
nitude that  is  divinity.  That  which  is  distinctive,  that  which  crowns 
universal  sovereignty,  is  the  crown  of  love.  And  that  which  dis- 
tinguishes love  from  every  other  quality,  is,  that  it  is  a  well-Avishing 
or  benevolent  impulse,  that  carries  itself  out,  if  need  be,  in  infinite 
service,  and  service  that  carries  with  it,  also,  infinite  love.     K  the 


Q2  LOYE-SEBYICm 

world  is  struggling  upward  toward  a  higher  development  of  true 
manhood,  God,  the  Almighty,  stands  by,  helping  men's  throes 
toward  universal  elevation  by  that  love  which  thinks,  which  cares, 
which  bears,  which  suffers.  That  which  we  see  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  specialized  for  the  wants  of  this  world,  was  not  that  which 
made  him  different  from  the  Father,  but  was  simply  a  manifestation 
of  the  Father — a  section,  an  hour,  as  it  were,  let  down, — one 
single  transaction,  as  an  exposition  of  what  is  going  on  in  heaven 
from  eternity  to  eternity,  by  a  love  which  legislates,  and  works,  and 
serves. 

There  is  no  other  Servant  like  God.  There  is  no  other  Being 
that  labors  with  so  much  assiduity,  and  that  so  humbles  himself,  and 
so  bows  down  under  weakness,  and  so  lifts  up  with  his  strength,  and 
so  wastes  the  unwasteable  existence  of  the  infinite,  as  God,  in  the 
plenary  service  of  love. 

Not  only  is  this  that  which  constitutes  divinity,  but  it  is  the  life 
and  the  joy  of  God — doing  good,  not  easily,  not  pleasingly,  not  re- 
ciprocally, but  to  the  just  and  to  the  unjust,  to  the  good  and  to  the 
bad  alike.     And  it  is  the  nature  of  love  to  serve. 

How  far  this  is  from  the  old  monarchical  view  of  God  !  How 
far  it  is  from  that  view  of  a  jealous,  and  self-praising,  self-glorifying 
God,  that  has  been  so  much  preached  in  the  world  !  I  have  read 
scores  of  volumes,  and  I  can  take  from  my  shelves  a  hundred  vol- 
umes, that  represent  God  as  a  Being  that  requires  all  the  universe  to 
be  parasites ;  and  that  surrounds  himself,  as  a  weak  ruler  in  a  cor- 
rupt court  surrounds  himself,  with  creatures  that  only  bow  the  sup- 
ple knee,  and  study  phrases  of  praise,  and  do  everything  that  is  ab- 
ject, he  himself  sitting  up  and  drinking  in  power,  and  honor,  and 
glory,  for  his  own  selfish  sake ;  and,  what  is  more  monstrous,  still 
sweeping  the  lines  of  creation  further  and  further  out,  to  augment 
the  store  of  flattery  that  comes  in,  almost  fathomless,  toward  him. 

Now,  is  selfishness  any  better  for  being  almighty  ?  Are  self- 
praise  and  self-laudation  any  better  for  being  infinite  ?  If  they  be 
mean  in  the  small,  and  within  the  bounds  of  reason,  how  much 
meaner  are  they  extended  into  infinity  !  There  is  no  being  in  the 
universe  that,  being  sovei-eign,  and  working  for  others,  is  so  self- 
abnegating,  and  pours  the  store  of  his  divine  thought  and  feeling 
and  nature  out  for  those  that  are  in  need,  as  God  does.  He  seeks 
others  that  he  may  do  them  good.  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than 
to  receive,  is  the  definition  of  the  thought  of  God. 

This  is  the  secret,  too,  of  heavenly  joy.  It  indicates  the  prepa- 
ration that  we  require  before  we  are  prepared  to  go  up  and  enter 
upon  the  future  state  of  bliss. 


LOYE-SEBVICE.  63 

If  this  exposition  be  true,  we  are  prepared  for  a  few  points  of 
personal  application. 

First,  I  may  remark  upon  the  spuriousness  of  much  of  that 
friendship  existing  in  the  world,  which  is  mere  barter  and  sale — 
which  is  a  commeixie  between  hearts  in  which  they  buy  and  sell  each 
other's  service,  and  each  other's  good  will.     I  merely  mention  that. 

I  may  also  say  that  this  is  a  test  of  what  is  called  good  nature. 
There  be  many  persons  who  suj)pose  that  good  nature  is  kindness. 
It  has  not  one  attribute  of  it,  necessarily.  Half  the  time  good  nature 
is  good  digestion — that  is  all.  Half  the  time  good  nature  is  nerves 
well  sheathed  in  adipose  matter.  Many  men  do  not  feel,  and  are 
not  irritated ;  and  why  should  they  not  be  kind  and  easy-going  ? 
AVhy,  I  can  show  you  hundreds  of  blessed,  sweet-cheeked,  sunny- 
faced,  plump-bodied  men,  who  go  through  the  world  kindly.  I  do  not 
undervalue  them.  They  lubricate  the  ways  of  life  ;  but  they  ought 
not  to  call  themselves  by  false  names.  Good  nature  is  a  good  thing ; 
but,  after  all,  it  is  a  very  superficial  thing.  It  is  far  more  physical 
than  mental.  And  it  is  not  active ;  it  does  not  put  forth  effort ;  it 
does  not  energize  anything  ;  it  does  not  suffer  for  the  sake  of  doing 
good  to  other  i^eople.  There  are  many  acerb  men ;  there  are  many 
hard-faced  men ;  tliere  are  many  rough,  severe  men,  who,  though 
they  will  hew  you  with  their  tongue,  will  put  forth  ten  times  as 
much  true  serving  love  for  you  as  these  waxy-cheeked,  good-natured, 
abdominal  men. 

While,  tliei'cfore,  good-nature  makes  the  intercourse  of  society 
pleasanter,  by  greasing  the  wheels  of  life  so  that  they  go  with  less 
friction  and  less  squeaking,  do  not  let  men  suppose  that  this  is  the 
equivalent  for  the  benevolence  of  the  Gospel.  Many  men  think  that 
they  are  benevolent  because  they  are  not  malign.  But  if  virtue 
consisted  in  nots,  how  virtuous  the  world  might  be  !  The  less  there 
was  of  a  man,  the  more  virtuous  he  would  be  !  If  it  is  virtue  in  a 
man  that  he  does  not  steal,  and  that  he  does  7iot  swear,  and  that  he 
does  not  break  the  Sabbath,  and  that  he  does  not  knock  down  every- 
body that  he  meets,  and  that  he  does  not  murder,  and  that  he  does 
not  get  drunk,  and  that  he  docs  7iot  get  angry, — then  there  are  many 
virtuous  men.  A  man  might  abstain  from  all  that,  and  be  no  more 
virtuous  than  a  mullein-stalk ;  for  a  mullein-stalk  stands,  and  grows, 
and  does  not  do  anything  tliat  is  wrong.  Virtue  is  not  a  negative 
quality.  But  take  a  man  and  give  him  power,  and  give  him  volume, 
and  put  him  out  in  life,  and  give  him  something  to  do,  and  let  him 
transact  business  among  his  fellow-men,  and  then  see  whether  he  will 
maintain  the  Christian  virtues  or  not.  If  a  man  has  force,  by  which 
he  is  able  to  produce  positive  effects,  and  he  produces  those  effects  in 


64  LOVE-SEBYICK 

the  direction  of  well-wishing ;  if  a  man  has  voluMe,  and  force  of 
being,  and  he  makes  that  greatness  and  that  strength  subordinate  to 
the  welfare  of  others,  not  forgetting  his  own  welfare  and  the  wel- 
fare of  those  that  are  dependent  upon  him,  but  in  love  serving 
others  as  well  as  himself  and  those  that  are  dear  to  him,  then  he  is 
truly  virtuous. 

But  easy,  honest  good-nature — what  is  that?  Two-thirds  of 
people's  generosity  spills  over.  A  man's  cup  is  full,  and  it  runs 
over,  and  others  get  the  drippings ;  and  then  he  says,  "  I  do  not 
think  God  will  judge  me  very  harshly.  I  am  a  generous  fellow.  I 
give  away  a  great  deal  more  than  you  think."  That  is,  he  spills 
over  a  good  deal,  and  the  dogs  come  and  lick  it  up,  and  he  thinks 
that  he  is  bountiful.  But  do  you  suppose  these  accidents,  do  you 
suppose  these  mere  alternations  mount  up  to  the  stature  of  positive- 
ness,  and  grandeur,  and  dignity  of  divinely  inspired  virtues  ? 

I  may  also  say  that  this  view  of  love,  as  serving,  ought  to  go  as 
a  fire  into  many  and  many  a  heart  in  the  household.  It  is  a  test  that 
very  few  of  us  can  bear.  There  are  hundreds  and  thousands,  I 
think,  who  under  that  test  would  say,  "I  do  believe  that  I  love; 
but  oh,  how  imperfectly !"  Though  we  have  this  ideal,  how  little 
do  we  carry  it  out !  If  there  were  such  a  love  as  this  in  the  house- 
hold, what  a  revolution  it  would  produce !  The  parents  seiwe  the 
children ;  and  the  children  serve  one  another ;  and  the  little  child, 
when  the  impulse  is  on  it,  will  thi-ow  its  arm  about  the  mother's  and 
father's  neck ;  brothers  and  sisters  will  kiss  each  other,  and  make  up 
their  differences ;  and  these  things  are  very  well — there  is  no  objec- 
tion to  them ;  but  how  much  will  parents  and  children  give  up  for 
one  another  ?  And  how  continually  will  they  give  up,  each  for  the 
others  ?  In  the  family,  happiness  is  in  the  ratio  in  which  each  is 
serving  the  others,  putting  the  whole  force  of  his  being  at  the  service 
of  those  others.  Happiness  in  the  family  consists  in  its  members 
seeking  each  other's  good,  and  bearing  each  other's  burdens.  It  is 
the  presence  or  absence  of  this  self-sacrificing  love  that  determines 
the  happiness  or  unhappiness  of  the  household.  And  yet,  how  few 
there  are  who  think  themselves  good  brothers  and  sisters  that  can 
say  that  they  have  and  exercise  that  love  ?  How  many  young  men 
there  arc  that  have  just  turned  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  and  that 
are  beginning  to  go  out  into  society,  who  would  be  fighting  mad,  if 
you  were  to  say  to  them,  "  You  have  no  special  love  for  your  sis- 
ters !"  And  when  they  go  out  they  are  generous  fellows,  full  of 
friendship  and  affection.  And  yet,  they  will  take  some  maiden  out 
of  the  family,  and  bestow  all  their  attention  upon  her,  and  their 
poor  sisters  can  go  without  a  beau.      There  is  many  a  brother 


LOVE- 8EEY1GE.  G5 

unwilling  to  serve ;  and  yet  he  resents  the  idea  tliat  he  does  not  love 
his  sister.  You  may  love  your  sister,  but  you  do  not  love  her  so 
well  as  you  do  yourself.  You  will  form  a  friendship  -Adhere  you  get 
back  as  much  as  you  give.  You  make  acquaintances,  saying,  "  You 
please  me,  and  I  will  please  you ;  you  make  me  happy,  and  I  will 
make  you  happy,"  and  that  is  what  you  call  forming  friendships. 
But  where  there  is  to  be  nothing  but  making  another  happy,  because 
love  in  you  longs  to  serve  another,  and  to  promote  happiness  in  that 
other,  you  are  found  wanting.  How  many  there  are  in  the  family 
who  think  they  love,  but  who  do  not  love ;  or  who,  if  they  do  love, 
only  love  with  an  affection  that,  compared  with  a  true  disinterested 
love,  is  as  copper  compared  with  gold. 

If  this  be  the  true  exposition  of  that  love  which  the  Gospel 
requires,  how  superficial  are  the  ordinary  and  popular  notions  of 
benevolence !  How  superficial  are  the  world's  ideas  of  giving !  How 
superficial  are  the  current  notions  in  regard  to  public  spirit !  How 
superficial  are  the  ideas  of  men  on  the  subject  of  being  willing  to  do 
for  persons  whom  they  never  saw,  and  never  will  see !  How  imper- 
fect is  the  popular  conception  of  the  higher  manly  graces,  if  this 
service  of  true  love,  the  voluntary  slavery  of  the  soul  for  another's 
sake,  is  the  true  standard ! 

One  reason  why  there  is  so  little  power  in  the  Church,  is  the 
adulterated  nature  of  Church  love.  There  is  very  little  of  the  heav- 
enly afiection  among  men.  There  is  very  much  of  the  afiection  of 
the  mart.  There  is  interchange,  there  is  traffic,  there  is  sectarian 
affection,  which  is  nothing  but  pride  and  selfishness  interchanged. 
There  is  very  little  love  in  Churches.  But  if  there  were  in  Churches 
tens,  and  scores,  and  hundreds  of  souls  that  had  been  trained  to 
this  higher  development,  and  if  they  ignited  together,  and  brought 
the  whole  power  of  their  souls  to  bear  upon  the  community,  is  there 
any  community  that  could  stand  the  light  and  heat  of  such  churches  ? 

Men  often  wonder  that  they  are  so  little  blessed  in  their  labor 
among  their  fellow  men.  "Why,"  they  say,  "I  have  prayed,  and  I 
have  prayed,  and  I  have  prayed,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  no 
no  such  thing  as  a  prayer  of  faith  being  answered.  I  have  prayed 
long  and  earnestly  for  men,  and  it  seems  as  though  God  never  would 
hear  my  prayer."     Did  you  ever  serve  anybody  in  love  ? 

There  is  a  figure  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Galatians,  that  I  will 
read,  with  your  permission. 

"My  little  children,  of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again  until  Christ  be 
formed  in  you." 

"  That  is  a  bold  figure,  but  a  very  grand  one.     Do  you  believe 

that  it  is  in  your  power  to  take  another  person  in  your  soul,  and 


66  L0VE-8EEYICE. 

carry  him  as  a  mother  carries  her  unborn  child,  day  and  night,  not 
an  hour  unconscious,  m  travail,  until  Christ  be  formed  in  him — do 
you  believe  you  can  minister  to  a  soul  in  this  way,  and  have  that 
soul  escape  you?  I  do  not.  And  if  you  are  so  little  useful,  it  is 
because  you  have  so  little  disinterestedness.  It  is  because  you  do 
not  know  how  to  serve. 

Once  more,  we  see  why  it  is  that  the  higher  Christian  graces  are 
so  seldom  developed.  We  go  after  Christian  graces  as  the  woman 
of  Samaria  went  to  Christ,  when  he  sat  by  the  well,  and  discoursed 
to  her  of  the  quality  of  that  water  which  he  would  give  her,  she  all 
the  time  interpreting  it  as  the  water  of  the  well  that  was  before 
them.  She  said,  "  Sir,  give  me  of  this  water,  that  I  come  not  here 
to  draw."  The  idea  with  her  was  that  it  would  be  a  great  satisfac- 
tion to  have  water  that  welled  up  perpetually,  so  that  nobody  shovild 
thirst  again.  She  did  not  want  to  take  the  trouble  to  go  and  draw 
water  to  quench  daily  thirst. 

i^We  go  to  God  and  say,  "  Lord,  give  me  humility;  and  we  would 
be  glad  if  God  would  drop  it  right  down  into  us.  We  ask  him  for 
faith ;  we  ask  him  for  patience ;  we  ask  him  for  spiritual  insight ; 
we  ask  him  for  joy;  we  ask  him  to  live  or  to  die;  we  ask  him  for 
various  higher  developments.  But,  my  friends,  these  are  tropical 
plants,  and  they  never  grow  in  any  climate  but  a  climate  as  hot  as 
love.  You  must  have  this  fundamental  quality,  and  carry  it  to  a 
certain  degree  of  development,  before  it  is  possible  for  you  to  have 
these  Christian  graces.  Suppose  a  person  were  to  plant  orange  and 
lemon  trees  in  Canada,  and  pray  God  to  give  him  big  crops  I  People 
would  say  that  the  climate  of  Canada  was  not  calculated  to  produce 
oranges  and  lemons.  If  a  man  will  go  to  the  southern  part  of 
Florida,  he  need  not  pray  much  to  get  large  crops  of  oranges  and 
lemons ;  but  if  he  goes  to  Kamtschatka,  he  cannot  get  them  by  any 
amount  of  praying.  And  we  must  have  right  conditions,  or  we  can- 
not have  right  virtues. 

Here  are  selfish,  worldly  men,  full  of  the  bartering  spirit,  full  of 
trafficking  afiections;  here  are  men  that  live  in  a  low  and  chilly 
state,  and  yet  they  are  praying  for  these  higher  graces,  thinking 
that  if  they  could  get  them  they  would  rise  into  a  warmer  state ; 
but  they  must  get  into  a  warmer  state  where  these  graces  will  grow, 
before  they  can  have  them.  Change  the  climate  of  the  soul,  and 
they  will  become  spontaneous  and  fruitful.  For,  as  selfishness  is 
the  bane  and  the  curse  of  life,  so  this  love  that  is  disinterested,  and 
that  serves,  is  the  bounty  and  divinity  of  life. 


LO  VE-SBB  YIOE.  6  7 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  bless  thee  that  there  is  rest  in  thee ;  that  the  disturbance, 
the  care,  and  the  burden  of  life  have  pauses ;  and  that  in  them,  above  the 
noise  and  above  the  groans  of  life,  we  hear  thee  speaking  peace.  Not  as  the 
world  giveth  dost  thou  give ;  but  that  perfect  peace  which  dispels  doubt, 
and  fear,  and  gives  rest  to  every  soul.  We  rejoice  that  we  may  trust  thee 
Heavenly  Father,  for  all  daily  wants.  Thou  wilt  not  forget  the  sun,  that  it 
shall  not  know  its  shining ;  thou  wilt  not  forget  the  conditions  which  form 
the  clouds,  that  they  shall  not  drop  down  both  dew  and  rain  ;  and  thou  wilt 
not  forget  thy  creatures,  who  look  to  thee  for  supply,  mutely;  nor  wilt  thou 
forget  us,  that  are  better  than  the  birds  or  the  beasts.  And  thou  knowest 
all  things  we  are  in  need  of.  Thou  art  evermore  providing  for  us,  yet 
saying,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness." 

O  Lord  our  God !  since  the  day  that  thou  didst  reveal  to  us  the  secret  of 
eternal  life ;  since  we  knew  where  our  manhood  was  ;  since  we  sought  to 
fill  up  the  measure  of  strength  in  our  higher  life,  we  have  felt  more  the  need 
of  spiritual  bread  than  of  the  daily  bread  which  is  for  the  body.  These  na- 
tures can  labor,  and  the  measure  of  reason  with  which  we  are  endowed  can 
direct  our  industry  to  skill,  and  we  can  feed  and  clothe  ourselves ;  but,  alas 
for  the  poverty  of  the  soul!  How  to  wrestle,  how  to  overcome  selfishness 
on  every  side,  how  to  build  strong  against  the  passions,  how  to  say  to  the 
restless  pulse  of  the  great  sea  that  rolls  within.  Peace,  be  still,  we  know  not. 
We  know  as  little  now  as  when  we  first  began.  How  full  are  we  all  the 
morning  of  resolutions  of  good !  Strait  shall  be  our  path,  we  say.  And  yet, 
at  night,  how  crooked  has  it  been !  And  we  hardly  know  where  we  began 
to  bend,  or  what  carried  us— what  weight — what  easily  besetting  sin.  But 
that  very  night  we  bury  the  good  purpose  of  the  morning.  And  then  come 
days  of  discouragement,  when  wegiveupthebattle,  asif  we  were  not  worthy 
of  fighting  where  are  so  many  wounds,  so  much  disaster,  such  captivity,  and 
so  few  victories.  But  thou  callest  us  again.  And  we  cannot  give  up  the 
strife  for  something  better  than  this  life.  Do  not  we  see  how  poor  and  per- 
ishable it  is  at  best  ?  Do  we  not  see  how  joys  turn  to  sorrows,  almost  in  the 
hour  when  they  are  lighted  ?  Do  we  not  see  how  fast  sorrows  take  hold  upon 
joys,  and  how  they  are  their  constant  companions  ?  Where  is  there  stability? 
Where  can  we  invest  our  hearts  ?  Turn  whither  we  may,  we  are  discontented. 
'  If  we  pursue  the  road  to  holiness,  we  are  weary  in  well-doing ;  or,  if  we 
drift  with  selfishness,  we  still  become  bent  and  weary.  The  world  was  not 
made  for  our  living.  Here  is  no  abiding  city.  We  dwell  not  here.  We  are 
pilgrims  and  strangers,  and  are  traveling  across  this  earthly  sphere.  Blessed 
be  thy  name,  there  is  a  higher  thought  than  ours,  and  a  better  wisdom  than 
ours,  and  a  better  purpose  that  directs  our  inward  life  than  ours ;  and  by  the 
unrevealed  ministration  of  sorrow  and  joy,  of  burden  and  release,  of  im- 
prisonment and  freedom,  thou  art  carrying  forward  the  work  in  us  little  by 
little.  The  years  serve  thee,  and  time  serves  thee ;  and  thou  art  helping  us 
eo  that  as  the  hours  draw  near  we  discern,  with  more  and  more  clearness, 
the  better  life,  and  our  aspiration  rises  still  higher.  And  we  strive  with  even 
more  alacrity,  as  the  days  go  on,  to  live  above  the  flesh,  above  the  sight  of 
the  eye,  and  above  our  desires  and  passions,  and  to  live  in  the  communion  of 
God,  and  in  the  hope  of  salvation,  through  love  and  grace. 

Oh !  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  help  all  those  who  are  discouraged ; 
and  all  those  who  see  in  themselves  the  spark  that  is  struck,  yea,  the  light 
that  is  kindled,  but  see  it,  alas!  as  the  light  that  quivers  on  the  point  of  the 
wick.  Thou  wilt  not  quench  tlie  smoking  flax  until  thou  bring  forth  judg- 
ment unto  victory.  And  thou  wilt  not  break  the  bruised  reed.  Those  that 
aie  maimed;  those  that  have  often  been  overblown,  and  have  in  themselves 


G8  LOVE-SEBVICE. 

no  strength, — thou  hast  compassion  upon  them,  and  thou  Trilt  hold  them  up, 
so  that  the  wind  shall  not  overturn  them. 

Blessed  be  thy  name,  O  thou  Father  of  the  Soul !  for  all  thy  goodness  to 
us,  and  for  the  manifestation  of  it  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

And  now,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  we  may  take  courage,  not  because  we 
are  wise,  or  strong,  or  patient,  or  persevering,  or  successful,  but  because  God 
is  faithful,  who  has  promised.  May  all  our  hope  be  in  him.  And  in  the 
great  bounty  of  thy  love,  may  we  have  the  assurance  of  our  salvation. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  this  morning,  in  behalf  of  all  that  are  gathered  to- 
gether here.  How  many  are  the  wants,  how  many  are  the  desires  —how 
many  that  are  expressed  silently  to  thee,  and  how  very  many  unrecognized 
—heave  within  the  soul,  and  toss  it,  for  which  there  are  no  words !  Wilt 
thou  look  upon  the  inward  life  of  every  one.  Help  t^ose  that  are  struggling 
against  their  ill-willed  passions ;  those  that  would  subdue  vanity ;  those  that 
would  temper  pride ;  those  that  strive  against  avarice  ;  those  that  seek  to  be 
less  worldly-minded  ;  those  that  desire  more  and  more  to  be  quickened  into 
a  disinterestedness  of  kindness. 

Bless,  we  pray  thee,  all  those  that  are  endeavoring  to  stand  in  the  place 
of  God  to  their  little  chi  Idren ;  who  know  their  own  weakness ;  who  perceive 
their  own  daily  infirmities ;  who  desire  to  do  the  best  things  for  tlieir  chil- 
dren, and  who  oftentimes  are  in  the  shadow  of  doubt,  lest  they  should  mis- 
lead them,  and  lest  they  should  pervert  them  in  their  tender  years.  Lord, 
hear  the  cry  of  parents'  hearts  for  themselves  and  for  their  children. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  all  those  who,  within  the  household,  are  seeking 
more  and  more  to  refine  their  life,  and  more  and  more  to  let  it  be  a  life  daily 
outflowing  with  all  kindness  and  all  beneficence,  may  have  a  realization  of 
their  desire.  Hear  their  prayer  this  morning,  and  strengthen  them  in  every 
good  purpose.  And  may  thy  Spirit,  Father  of  all  grace  and  love,  dwell  in 
them,  and  work  mightily. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  hear,  this  morning,  those  that  come  with  hands 
scarcely  washed  from  the  soil  of  the  earth;  those  that  have  lost  themselves  in 
the  week,  and  have  found  themselves  following  the  Bright  and  Morning  Star 
this  day.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  as  they  look  back  upon  the  way  in  which 
the  outward  man  hath  striven,  and  the  inward  man  hath  been  smothered  and 
strangled ;  grant  that  as  they  repine  and  mourn  over  the  follies  of  the  week, 
they  may  have  not  only  a  feeling  of  repentance  before  God,  but  an  intimation 
of  thy  Spirit  with  them.  And  may  they  be  so  strengthened  that  as  their* 
days,  so  their  strength  shall  be.  And  may  they  carry  into  their  own  indus- 
try a  higher  motive  than  mere  gain,  or  their  own  honor  or  strength.  May 
they  seek  to  fill  the  vt-ins  of  society  wita  better  blood.  May  they  seek  to 
serve  Christ  in  their  daily  calling.  May  they  bear  Christ's  spirit  with  them, 
and  preach  to  men,  not  so  much  by  the  word  of  their  mouth,  as  by  the  spirit 
that  they  shall  manifest,  standing  humble  amidst  the  proud,  loving  amongst 
the  selfish,  and  self-sacrificing  among  those  that  would  cause  others  to  suffer 
for  their  good.  We  pray  that  they  may  be  bright  examples  of  true  living 
in  this  untoward  generation.  And  we  pray,  O  God!  that  if  they  to-day  re- 
pent of  their  sins,  registering  against  themselves  their  own  transgression, 
they  may  have  an  intimation  of  thy  peace,  and  of  thy  grace  and  mercy  to 
their  souls.  May  they  not  be  afraid  to  go  to  God  with  a  confession  of  their 
worldliness  and  sin. 

And  if  there  are  those  who  are  in  perplexity  by  reason  of  their  fears,  and 
know  not  which  way  to  turn,  grant  that  to-day  they  may  have  a  hearing  con- 
sciously with  thee.  And  may  they  feel  that  Providence  is  real,  and  that  thou 
thinkest  of  them.  And  may  they  be  able  to  commit  themselves  and  their 
fears  to  thee.  And  may  they  evermore  seek  that  guidance  and  wisdom 
from  on  high  which  thou  hast  promised  to  give  liberally,  upbraiding  not. 


LO  VE-SEB  VICE.  G  9 

If  there  are  those,  desolate  and  discouraged,  who,  often  beginning,  or 
seeking  again  and  again  the  right  path,  have  lost  it ;  if  there  are  those  who 
are  struggling  and  striving  almost  without  hope,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt 
hold  them  steadfast  in  their  divine  nature.  Say  unto  them,  that  a  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth.  And 
if  they  have  not  peace  among  men,  nor  in  human  things,  may  they  have 
peace  with  God, — that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

And  if  there  be  those  that  this  morning  look  upon  their  life  and  them- 
selves with  great  sorrow  and  horror;  if  there  be  those  that  seek  earnestly 
better  things ,  if  there  be  those  that  are  half-discouraged  in  this  very  seek- 
ing; if  there  be  those  that  are  as  a  sailor,  seeking  the  shore  from  the  ship- 
wrecked vessel,  but  cast  back  by  the  refluent  wave  as  oft  as  he  touches  the 
ground,  and  well-nigh  whelmed — if  there  be  such,  we  pray,  O  Lord!  that 
they  may  strive  for  the  better  land,  and  not  give  up  till  death.  May  their 
souls  cry  out  mightily  for  help  to  Him  whose  ear  never  slumbers.  Hear 
their  cry. 

And,  O  God !  if  there  be  those  who  sit  in  afSiction  this  morning,  ponder- 
ing the  strange  way  of  God  with  them,  in  that  they  have  buried  their  dead, 
we  pray  thee  to  give  resurrection  in  their  souls  to  better  thoughts,  that  they 
may  not  think  that  any  are  ever  buried.  May  they  remember  that  while 
the  dust  goes  to  dust,  the  spirit  goes  to  God  who  gave  it.  And  may  all  that 
are  bereaved  seek  their  beloved  ones  in  the  other  life,  and  above  their  head, 
and  above  the  storm,  and  above  the  trouble  of  this  world.  And  if  any  are 
pondering  the  peculiar  trial  of  their  bereavments  in  those  that  are  gone, 
whom  they  cannot  see  again,  and  with  whom  no  last  words  were  exchanged ; 
if  any  are  mourning  over  tidings  brought  from  afar,  of  death  in  distant  lands; 
if  any  are  sitting  with  their  dead  before  them  ;  if  any  are  in  the  maze  and 
stupor  of  grief,  will  the  Lord  have  compassion  upon  them  all,  and  deliver 
them  from  the  thrall  of  their  sorrow,  and  say  to  them,  gently,  For  the  pres- 
ent it  is  not  joyous  but  grievous  ;  but  afterward  it  shall  work  out  the  peace- 
able fruit  of  righteousness. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  follow  the  thoughts  of  those  that  are  here, 
and  bless  all  whom  the  heart  yearns  to  bless.  Sanctify  their  friendships. 
Deepen  and  purify  their  loves.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that,  walking  together 
in  life,  with  so  much  to  oppose,  and  so  little  to  help,  men  may  cling  more 
faithfully  to  each  other,  and  not  seek  to  crowd  one  another  from  the  way  of 
life,  and  not  put  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  one  another.  And  grant 
that  we  may  bear  one  another's  burdens,  in  honor  preferring  one  another; 
and  in  all  things  seek  to  follow  the  example  of  Him  who,  though  rich,  for 
our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we,  through  his  poverty  might  become  rich. 

We  pray  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  churches  and  all  ministers, 
everywhere,  this  day.  May  the  Gospel  be  preached  with  purity  and  power. 
Revive  thy  work  in  all  thy  churches.  Purify  this  land.  And  grant  that  all 
the  nations  on  this  earth  may  at  last  see  the  dawn  of  that  better  day  of  peace 
and  purity  and  intelligence,  when  superstition  and  ignorance  shall  be  driyen 
from  off  the  globe,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall  fill  the  earth  as  the 
waters  fill  the  sea. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit^  evermore. 
Amen. 


70  LOYE-SEEVIGE. 

PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  the  word  spoken. 
Deliver  us,  we  pray  thee,  from  ourselves.  Deliver  us  from  the  devil  that  is 
horn  in  us,  and  that  is  down-bearing  with  everlasting  gravitation  of  selfish- 
ness, that  carries  us  back  again  toward  the  earth  from  which  we  sprang. 
Touch  us  with  thy  nature.  Breathe  that  spirit  into  us  that  brought  thee, 
blessed  Saviour,  from  heaven,  that  we  might  understand  thy  life.  Oh !  that 
we  might  see  in  the  meaning  of  thy  great  suffering,  and  thy  blessed  death, 
out  of  which  the  world  has  had  life  brought  to  it.  And  may  we  learn  to 
love  with  requital.  May  we  learn  to  serve  in  love.  May  we  more  and  more 
test  ourselves  by  these  higher  standards.  May  we  repent  of  the  past.  May 
we  rise  by  vision  of  the  future,  and  of  thy  divine  love,  until  we  arc  fitted  for 
that  higher  life,  and  that  more  blessed  society,  of  the  heavenly  land.  Then 
take  us  home.  And  to  thy  name,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  shall  be  the  praise, 
forever.    Amen. 


IV. 

The  Social  Principle  in  Religion 


O  Lord  our  God,  exalted  art  thou  above  all  touch  of  want,  or  thought  of 
sorrow,  except  in  sympathy  with  the  sorrows  of  those  whom  thou  dost  rear 
up  by  thy  life  and  power.  Thou  art  our  Father— the  Father  of  our  spirits. 
To  whom  shall  we  go  for  refreshment,  to  whom  for  all  help  and  guidance, 
,  but  to  thee  ?  Make  the  way  plain  and  short,  this  morning.  Come  toward  ua 
who  cannot  lift  ourselves  up  toward  thee.  With  infinite  condescension, 
dwell  in  our  hearts.  May  thy  thought  of  love  warm  us,  and  bring  us  into 
fellowship  with  thee.  Grant  that  all  our  communion  with  thee,  and  our  joy 
in  song,  and  our  offerings  of  devotion,  and  every  service  of  instruction,  may 
be  divinely  guided  and  blest.  These  favors  we  ask  for  Christ's  sake.  A-men. 
i. 


THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLE  IN  RELIGION. 


"Now,  therefore,  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow- 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God.  And  are  built  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
chief  corner-stone;  in  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together,  grow- 
eth  unto  a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord :  in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together 
for  a  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.— Ez*h.  ii.,  1&-23. 


There  is  a  very  interesting  progress  of  thought  in  this  passage. 
The  negative  is  substantially  an  affirmative. 

"  Ye  are  no  more  strangers." 

Considering  it  in  a  civil  aspe.ct,  there  was  nothing  that,  to  the 
Jew,  to  the  Greek,  or  to  the  Roman,  could  seem  more  unfortunate 
than  not  to  have  been  born  a  Jew,  or  a  Greek,  or  a  Roman.  They 
felt  to  a  very  considerable  extent  as  we  do,  who  feel  that  to  be  born 
an  American  is  the  best  birth  that  one  can  have — for  the  first  time. 
They  had,  in  other  words,  an  intensity  of  national  thought  and 
feeling  which  we  can  now  scarcely  recognize. 

The  Jew  accustomed  himself  to  divide  the  whole  world  into  two 
classes.  The  first  class,  and  the  only  one  worth  anything,  was  com- 
posed of  Jews ;  and  all  the  rest  were  Gentiles,  They  were  the 
great  miserable  part  of  mankind,  that  were  not  born  Jews. 

The  Greeks  felt  the  same  way,  except  that,  being  more  intellect- 
ual and  more  aesthetic,  they  had  a  daintiness  in  their  scorn.  They 
also  divided  the  world  into  two  classes — the  fortunate  people  who 
were  Greeks,  and  the  millions  and  millions  of  unfortunate  people 
who  were  barbarians. 

And  the  Romans,  afterwards,  regarded  Roman  citizenship  as  the 
very  top  of  earthly  privilege ;  and  all  the  rest — the  great  outside 
world — to  them,  likewise,  were  barbarians.  To  be  a  Roman  citizen 
was  not  simply  an  honor :  it  was  a  prerogative  ;  it  was  a  protection ; 
it  was  a  power. 

We  find  a  reference  to  the  intensity  of  this  feeling  recorded  in 
the  twenty-second  chapter  of  Acts. 

"  Then  the  chief  captain  came,  and  said  unto  him  [Paul],  Tell  me,  art 
thou  a  Roman  ?" 

Sunday  Morning,  AprQ  2, 1871.  Lesson  :  Luke  XXI.     Hymns  (Plymouth  Colleo- 
tlon) :  Nos.  639,  tWS,  717.  /"luuiu  wucv- 


74  TEE  SOCIAL  PEINCIPLE 

How  did  he  come  to  ask  that  question  ?  Paul  had  been  seized, 
and,  without  any  trial,  had  been  thrown  into  prison ;  and  in  order 
to  extort  testimony  from  him,  they  made  ready  to  scourge  him. 
And  when  they  had  bound  him,  and  were  about  to  lay  on  the 
scourge,  he  turned  to  the  officer,  and  said, 

"Is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  man  that  is  a  Roman,  and  uncon- 
demned?" 

"  Now,  to  scourge  a  man  would  not  have  been  a  great  sin — man- 
hood went  for  nothing  ;  but  that  they  were  about  to  scourge  a  Mo- 
man,  withheld  the  lash  instantly. 

"  When  the  centurion  heard  that,  he  went  and  told  the  chief  captain> 
saying.  Take  heed  what  thou  doest;  for  this  man  is  a  Roman." 

Everybody,  in  the  whole  civilized  world,  then  stood  in  awe  of 
that  name. 

*'  Then  the  chief  captain  came  and  said  unto  him,  Tell  me,  art  thou  a 
Roman?  He  said.  Yea.  And,  the  captain  answered.  With  a  great  sum  ob- 
tained I  this  freedom.    And  Paul  said.  But  I  was  free  born." 

No  one  scene  that  I  know  of  in  Scripture,  will  show  wliat  value 
and  what  dignity  were  put  upon  citizenship,  more  than  this  little 
incident.     When,  therefore,  the  apostle  said, 

"  Ye  are  no  more  foreigners  and  strangers," 
it  carried  with  it  a  thrill  of  meaning — although  it  was  so  spiritual- 
ized that  we  can  scarcely  appreciate  it. 

"  Ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow-citizens." 

They  were  brought  up  higher ;  they  were  ennobled ;  they  were 
dignified.  And  this  is  the  figure  by  which  the  apostle  represents 
the  true  elevation  which  takes  place  when  men  have  entered  into 
the  spirit  of  religious  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  are  associated  to- 
gether. They  form  a  new  citizenship.  They  are  formed  on  a  higher 
plane.     They  enter  upon  a  nobler  life. 

Then  the  thought  progresses  : 

•'  Now,  therefore,  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow- 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God." 

After  thinking  of  them  as  citizens,  the  next  thought  naturally 
was  that  citizenship  was  broken  up  into  families  ;  and  the  thought 
of  the  household  was  even  more  precious  than  that  of  the  state. 
And  then  came  the  thought  of  a  household  with  God  as  the  Father 
— the  household  of  God. 

Then,  from  this  thought  he  naturally  progresses  to  that  which 
the  household  represents.  And  the  world  over,  the  household  repre- 
sents the  greatest  amount  of  heart-privilege  and  of  refinement.  And 
the  enjoyment  of  any  age  may  be  gauged  by  the  quality  of  its  home- 
life.  It  has  always  been  so.  It  will  always  be  so.  The  family  is 
the  institution  which  stands  next  to  God — next  to  the  divine  pulsa- 
tion.    Here  is  love-equality.     Here  is  privilege  without  supersti- 


IN  BELIGION,  75 

tlon.  Here  is  less  of  the  artificial  and  more  of  the  natural  than 
anywhere  else.  "We  come  nearer  the  spontaneous  impulse  of  the 
soul  without  imposing  ceremonies,  and  without  conventional  institu- 
tions, and  yet  with  fullness,  and  reality,  and  power,  in  home-life  than 
in  any  other  combination.  Nowhere  else  is  there  so  much  of  every 
person's  life  acting  so  freely,  so  strongly,  so  directly,  and  so  usefully, 
as  in  the  family. 

Therefore,  when  the  Apostle  spoke  of  Christians  gathering  to- 
gether in  church  fellowship,  and  said,  "  They  are  redeemed  from  the 
condition  of  barbarians  or  Gentiles,  as  it  were,  and  brought  into 
citizenship,"  that  meant  a  great  deal.  And  when  he  said,  "  Thev 
belong  to  the  household  of  God ;  they  have  all  the  amenities  and 
privileges  and  preciousness  of  the  intercourse  that  belongs  to  the 
household,"  he  said  still  more. 

In  speaking  of  the  household,  he  naturally  thought  of  the 
house.    And  instantly  the  figure  changed  into  an  architectural  one. 

•'  And  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone." 

That  is,  you  are  built,  not  on  the  apostles,  and  on  the  prophets, 
as  if  they  were  the  foundation ;  but  you  are  built  up  with  them, 
BO  that  you  stand  on  the  same  foundation  that  they  do.  Both  you 
and  they  stand  on  the  divine  foundation. 

*  And  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles,  and  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone ;  in  whom  all  the  building  fitly 
framed  together,  groweth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord." 

Nothing  was  so  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  antiquity  as  a  temple,  be- 
cause private  houses  were  so  squalid,  relati^  ely.  When  Athens  was 
the  glory  of  the  world,  when  her  marble  shone  almost  like  the  rays 
of  the  sun  to  one  that  approached  the  city,  her  streets  were  narrow, 
her  dwellings  were  small,  and  all  their  appointments  were  mean. 
And  when  the  apostle  would  speak  of  a  building  that  had  some  cir- 
cumstance and  dignity,  he  naturally  took  as  an  example  that  which 
was  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  antiquity — the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  the 
Acropolis  in  Athens,  or  the  many  temples  in  Rome.  The  temple  was 
the  embodiment  of  beauty,  and  of  sanctity  as  well.  And  the  apostle 
said, 

"  Te  are  of  the  household  of  God."  v 

And  then,  in  speaking  of  the  building,  he  cited  the  temple,  be- 
cause that  gave  the  conception  of  a  glorious  structure. 
And  next  he  said, 

"  In  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  a  habitation  of  God  through 
the  Spirit." 

For  the  temple  then,  in  his  thoughts,  was  commuted  into  a 
dwelling.  It  was  the  habitation  of  God  j  it  was  the  house  ;  it  was 
the  household ;  it  was  citizenship. 


76  TEE  SOCIAL  FEINCIPLE 

I  do  not  consider  this  mixing  figures.  I  consider  it  a  progres- 
sion of  figures,  not  by  any  law  of  outward  similarity  or  suggestion, 
but  by  the  more  subtle  evolution  of  interior  thought. 

All  this  refers  to  the  associated  life  of  Christian  people,  that  are 
become  Christ's,  that  are  God's,  and  that  are  united  together.  The 
apostle  does  not  here  so  much  declare  the  purposes  for  which  they 
are  united.  He  rather  plays  upon  the  thought  of  the  dignity,  the 
power,  and  the  glory  which  rested  upon  men  in  their  religious  asso- 
ciation. At  the  earliest  period  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  church, 
and  even  since.  Christians  drew  together  for  the  purposes  of  mutual 
support.  The  Gospel  had  its  first  disciples  among  the  poor  and  ig- 
norant, as  we  all  know ;  and  they  really  needed  to  cling  to  each 
other.  They  needed  it,  not  simply  for  instruction,  but  preeminently 
to  keep  up  each  other's  courage  in  the  life  that  they  were  following. 
For  certain  exigencies,  and  during  brief  periods,  it  was  necessary 
that  there  should  be  a  community  of  goods.  It  would  not  have  been 
needful  if  the  earliest  followers  of  Christ  had  been  in  circumstances 
of  wealth  ;  but  where  they  were  all  poor,  and  where  the  least  change 
in  their  condition  was  liable  to  throw  whole  families  out  of  their 
daily  bread,  there  was  reason  why  they  should  put  their  joint- 
stock  at  the  command  of  each  other.  But  this  never  was  laid  down 
broadly  as  a  general  order  of  the  church.  Kor  was  it  perpetuated. 
It  was  only  an  occasional  experience.  They  met,  first,  in  part,  for 
the  most  economic  reasons  ^  but  they  also  associated  themselves  to- 
gether because  there  was  no  other  way  of  encouraging,  helping,  and 
comforting  each  other  in  the  religious  life,  so  well  as  on  the  social 
principle.  It  was  the  social  element  that  first  obtained  in  the  Chris- 
tian church.  We  have  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Christian  church 
never  separated  itself  from  the  old  Jewish  church  until  after  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem.  Up  to  that  time  the  temple  was  sacred  alike 
to  those  that  were  Jews  of  the  strictest  sort,  and  to  those  that  were 
Christian  Jews. 

We  have  almost  an  exact  analogy  of  this  in  modern  history. 
When  Wesley  undertook  to  reform  the  Church  of  England,  he  did 
not  separate  his  disciples  from  the  established  church ;  and  to  the 
day  of  his  death  they  did  not  leave  it.  They  remained  in  it,  and 
observed  its  ordinances  and  rules,  at  the  same  time  holding  separate 
meetings  of  their  own,  over  and  above  those  of  the  church.  And 
the  early  Christians  still  adhered  to  the  temple-service,  though  they 
had  their  social  gatherings  besides,  until  the  city  was  destroyed, 
and  the  temple  with  it,  and  they  were  driven  from  it.  Then  they 
were  obliged  to  frame  some  other  organizations  ;  and  they  took 
the  synagogue  for  their  pattern,  or  copied  largely  from  it.    And  the 


IN  BELIGION.  77 

circumstances  of  tlicse  organizations  varied  almost  infinitely.  There 
was  no  prescribed  outward  form  for  the  church.  While  they  still 
maintained  the  established  canons  and  modes  of  worship  of  the 
Jewish  church,  they  met  together  as  Christians  aside  from  the 
temple-service,  because  in  this  way  they  could  kindle  in  tlieraselves 
a  higher  fervor. 

It  is  difficult  for  single  individuals,  unless  they  be  very  highly 
endowed,  to  create  in  themselves  fervor  when  alone.  Now  and  then 
there  is  a  nature  that  can  generate  its  own  fire  ;  but  ordinarily  you 
must  put  stick  upon  stick,  and  spark  to  spark,  and  flame  to  flame,  in 
order  to  make  fervor.  And  it  is  the  association  of  feeling,  it  is  feclino- 
in  the  multitude,  whose  thought  kindles  in  each  individual  the  hio-h- 
est  forms  of  emotion.  There  are  very  few  who  have  the  power  of 
solitary  zeal ;  and  there  are  very  few  who  have  not  the  power  of 
associated  zeal.  The  Christian  religion  depended  at  the  first,  and 
has  ever  since  depended,  and  will  to  the  end  depend,  very  largely 
on  Avorldly  conditions.  For  a  religion  whose  element  is  love,  and 
not  awe ;  a  religion  whose  very  life  is  sweet  and  pure  emotion,  must 
thrive  by  the  social  principle.  It  never  was  meant  that  Christians 
should  be  solitary.  It  never  was  meant  that  they  should  feed  them- 
selves. It  was  meant  that  they  should  thrive  in  their  combined 
and  associated  capacities. 

In  church  association,  also,  the  feeble  and  ignorant  get  from  the 
gifts  of  all  an  education  which  is  not  possible  in  any  other  way.  A 
church  that  has  a  real  Christian  life  in  it,  is  one  of  the  best  schools 
to  which  men  can  go.  If,  when  the  disciples  had  professed  the 
name  of  Christ,  each  one  had  made  his  own  house  the  centre,  and  his 
own  relatives  exclusive  companions,  there  would  have  been  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  in  the  course  of  time  who  would  have  been 
almost  without  instruction.  But  by  the  gathering  together  of  the 
humble  and  lowly  with  those  of  culture  and  refinement  in  intimate 
association,  the  under  classes  gained,  and  the  upper  classes  lost 
nothing.  As  soon  as  the  idea  of  brotherhood  was  once  introduced  ; 
as  soon  as  men  felt  that  God  Avas  their  Father,  and  that  Jesus  Christ 
was.  their  elder  brother,  and  that  they  were  all  brethren,  and  they 
began  to  come  together  with  that  feeling  in  their  hearts,  instantly 
there  took  place  a  pi'ocess  of  evolution  and  of  education  which  never 
can  be  measured,  and  which  can  scarcely  be  overestimated. 

There  is  an  education  of  the  books,  and  there  is  an  education  of 
the  higlier  forms  in  schools;  but  the  general  education  which  the 
community  receive  depends  largely  upon  the  association  of  men  with 
men.  It  is  the  unconscious  and  general  action  of  the  higher  natures 
upon  the  intermediate   or   lower,   that  is  perpetually  working  in 


78  THE  SOCIAL  PEINCIPLE 

,  society ;  therefore,  a  church  that  gathers  together  its  memhers,  and 
has  not  circulation  in  it,  and  has  not  automatic  life  in  it,  and  has  not 
the  voluntary  principle  in  it,  has  but  little  influence ;  while  a  church 
whose  members  really  live,  is  a  powerful  moral  education  to  all  that 
belong  to  it. 

It  is  this  that  marks  the  church  of  the  peculiar  organization  to 
which  we  belong.  It  is  a  brotherhood.  And  in  one  sense — in  the 
sense  of  rank — all  that  are  in  it  are  equal.  There  are  no  priests 
with  us.  There  are  no  privileged  orders  in  our  church  association. 
We  are  one  family,  of  which  God  is  the  head.  The  church  is  itself 
a  household,  and  all  its  members  are  brethren.  In  that  sense  they 
all  stand  on  an  equal  footing.  And  of  all  organizations,  this  is  the 
best  if  it  is  wisely  used,  while  it  is  the  poorest  if  it  is  unwisely  used. 

If  there  be  a  true  life  in  the  church,  if  there  be  a  true  democratic 
feeling  among  the  members,  if  there  be  a  good  degree  of  zeal,  if 
there  be  a  proper  familiarity,  if  there  be  a  sweet  and  blessed  affec- 
tion, flowing  through  the  church,  then  the  best  lives  in  the  church 
become  instructors,  and  all  the  poorest  lives — the  lives  of  the  whole 
spiritual  household — are  pervaded  by  a  common  public  sentiment : 
the  gifts  of  all  belong  to  each  ;  and  the  gifts  of  each  belong  to  all. 

For  general  instruction,  then,  and  for  the  development  of  emotive 
life,  it  is  wise  for  those  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  gather 
themselves  together.  It  is  best  that  they  should  instruct  by  more 
than  their  ordinary  thought — though  that  ought  to  be  availed  of 
more  than  it  is.  There  are  many  churches  in  which  the  pew  is  a  thou- 
sand times  stronger  than  the  pulpit ;  and  it  is  a  very  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance that  it  is  so,  provided  that  it  is  used.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  often  more  than  half  of  the  real  power  of  the  church  is 
lost  because  it  is  not  developed  and  used.  Where,  as  in  many  of 
the  churches  of  the  adjacent  city,  there  are  scores  of  men  of  the 
highest  culture,  and  of  the  widest  exj^erience,  who  are  fitted  by  their 
very  professional  life  for  speaking  and  bearing  witness  to  eminent 
moral  truths,  it  would  seem  almost  impertinent  that  the  only  utter- 
ances in  the  church  should  be  from  one  man — the  pastor.  Not  that 
I  would  undervalue  the  stated  preaching  of  the  Gospel ;  but  I  would 
add  to  the  power  of  church-life  the  influence  of  all  those  who  are  fit- 
ted to  bear  testimony  and  witness  in  the  cause  of  Christ.  I  do  not 
exaggerate  when  I  say  that  not  half  the  power  which  there  is  in  the 
church  is  brought  to  bear  as  it  should  be.  But  where  it  is  brought 
to  bear  to  any  considerable  degree,  the  effect  is  wonderful.  And  it 
is  often  the  case  that  in  what  are  called  social  meetings,  there  is  a 
better  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  and  spiritual  truths  are  more  com- 
prehensively set  forth,  and  there  is  more  emotive  power  manifested, 


IN  BELIGION.  79 

and  there  is  more  profound  testimony  borne,  than  can  possibly  be 
the  case  where  there  is  but  one  man  officiating.  Witli  all  its  im- 
perfections, what  an  extraordinary  wealth  there  is  in  the  pulpit,  the 
world  over  1  Consider  what,  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  has  been 
the  amount  of  truth  thrown  out  upon  the  world — and  almost  in  one 
direction — by  the  Christian  pulpit.  In  antiquity  there  was  nothing 
like  it.  When  you  consider  that  every  Sabbath  Day  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  places  are  opened,  where  men,  equipped  and  skilled  by 
long  use  for  preaching  the  Gospel,  are  pouring  streams  of  moral 
light  and  truth  upon  the  community,  where  is  there  the  parallel  of 
this  great  work  ?  And  if  besides  this  immense  power,  there  were 
brought  to  bear  all  the  power  which  inheres  in  the  laity  of  the 
church — its  membership — there  would,  I  think,  be  a  j)entecostal 
force  added,  to  exalt  the  spiritual  life  of  the  people. 

There  is  in  the  association  of  Christians,  also,  an  opportunity  for 
the  development  of  those  emotions  and  those  enjoyments  which 
spring  from  the  service  of  song,  such  as  there  could  not  be  if  Chris- 
tians were  scattei-ed,  and  lived  solitarily.  The  nature  of  religion  must 
be  a  nature  of  emotion.  For,  although  religion  employs  the  reason, 
it  bears  to  it  the  same  relation  that  a  pair  of  spectacles  bears  to  the 
eyes.  It  is  not  the  eyes.  It  is  merely  a  help  to  the  eyes.  And 
religion  is  the  heart,  and  not  the  understanding.  Technically,  it  is  rev- 
erential, filial  love.  And  religion,  although  it  helps,  is  but  a  help. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  theology  that  is  religion.  It  is  the  higher  form  of 
heart-emotion  that  constitutes  religion. 

Now,  this  can  nowhere  else  have  expression  so  well  as  in  lyrical 
poetry.  There  is  no  other  creed  that  is  like  the  hymn-book.  There 
never  can  be  such  a  bond  of  union  as  the  hymn-book.  And  the  songs 
of  the  church,  and  its  regular  service,  often  supplement  the  church, 
and  sustain  it  through  periods  of  emergency.  Sometimes  where  the 
pulpit  is  weak  they  are  strong,  and  hold  the  church  on  in  spite  of  the 
weakness  of  the  instruction  of  the  pulpit.  They  give  utterance  to 
thoughts  that  otherwise  could  never  be  spoken.  Many  can  chant 
what  they  cannot  speak.  Many  and  many  a  one  can  sing  (with  tears 
dropping,  and,  as  it  were,  beating  time)  joys  or  aspirations  which  no 
language  other  could  frame.  I  like  to  think  of  loA^e  as  tlie  center  of 
religion,  and  of  song  as  its  best  utterance. 

'  The  mother  singing  over  the  cradle — is  there  any  other  saintli- 
ness  more  beautiful  to  be  tliought  of  than  that?  The  old  bird  sits 
on  the  tree,  and  coaxes  the  young  bird  to  fly  to  her.  She  sings 
to  it,  and  teaches  it  to  sing.  And  the  mother  sits  at  the  cradle, 
as  it  were,  to  call  the  little  children  up  to  the  Christian  life.  The 
cliildren  sing  in  the  family,  and  in  the  utterance  of  song  they  are 


80  THE  SOCIAL  PBmCIPLE 

all  one.  There  is  but  one  sound,  but  one  hymn,  and,  to  a  large 
extent,  so  far  as  there  is  feeling  at  all,  it  is  one  feeling.  And  persons 
are  never  brought  into  such  communion  as  when  they  are  gathered 
together,  and  their  feelings  express  themselves  in  song.  It  is  the 
hymns  that  persons  sing  together  that  unite  them.  I  think  I  love 
those  that  I  have  sung  with  better  than  any  others.  And  when  we 
come  into  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus — into  the  lecture-room  and 
the  church  proper — and  all  join  in  singing,  is  there  any  other  min- 
istration in  the  sanctuary  that  opens  the  gate  of  heaven  so  quickly, 
and  makes  the  battlements  shine  so  brightly  ?  Is  there  any  other 
seA'vice  that  so  brings  to  our  thought  the  radiant  inhabitants  of  the 
other  side  ?  Is  there  any  other  service  that  seems  to  bow  and  bend 
the  heavens  so  near  to  us,  and  that  awakens  thoughts  of  dear  ones 
that  have  gone  away  from  us  so  quickly,  as  songs  of  Zion  ?  Is  there 
anything  which  so  makes  doctrines  seem  no  longer  cant,  by  clothing 
them  with  life  and  beauty ;  which  so  makes  theology  like  an  orchard, 
in  which  stands  the  tree  of  life  dropping  down  Christian  fruit  ?  Since 
the  church  was  organized,  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
have  been  among  the  peculiar  experiences  of  the  church ;  but  I  think 
that  we  have  not  fully  entered  upon  those  experiences  yet.  The  mil- 
lennial service  of  song  will  put  all  that  we  have  had  in  the  back- 
ground. The  time  will  come  when  whole  congregations  will  chant 
the  Psalms  of  David,  and  when  they  will  thus  be  touched  with  the 
profoundest  and  divinest  mysteries,  almost  as  spontaneously  as  birds 
warble  their  Spring  songs.  The  time  has  not  come  yet,  but  the  time 
will  come.  At  present,  song  is  in  bondage — sometimes  to  singing- 
masters,  sometimes  to  classic  music,  sometimes  to  pedantic  instru- 
ments, sometimes  to  one  thing,  and  sometimes  to  another.  Just 
now,  it  is  in  danger  of  going  into  bondage  to  taste.  We  all  must 
have  things  exquisite.  Everything  must  be  carried  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  refinement.  Nothing  will  do  which  has  not  the  signet  and 
sign  of  the  utmost  culture.  I  like  culture  so  long  as  it  is  humble, 
so  long  as  it  regards  itself  as  the  servant  of  the  truth.  But  I  love  the 
heart ;  and  I  would  rather  hear  an  old  cracked  voice,  feeble,  with 
many  gaps,  singing  honestly  with  tears  the  songs  of  Zion,  than  hear 
the  finest  cantatrice  that  ever  enraptured  the  most  cultivated  con- 
gregation. And  although  there  is  to  be  taste  and  beauty  in  song,  if 
possible,  yet,  if  anything  is  to  be  sacrificed,  it  is  taste  and  beauty. 
The  inside,  the  world  over,  against  the  outside !  The  soul  against  the 
body  !     The  external  goes  down  to  let  the  internal  out. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  undervaluing  taste  and  beauty  in 
song,  as  you  know  I  do  not,  by  the  history  of  this  church,  Avhere 
there  has  been  so  much  done  to  promote  growth  and  admirableness 


riV  EELIGION  81 

of  song ;  but  that  is  always  to  be  subordinate  to  the  soul.  The  mo- 
ment you  begin  to  sing  for  concert  eifocts,  and  to  feel  that  nothing 
will  do  but  the  most  exquisite  style  of  music,  that  moment  song  goes 
into  Babylon.  That  moment  it  is  in  bondage.  For  it  is  the  minis- 
ter of  joy  to  the  heart.  It  is  the  minister  of  peace.  It  is  that  which 
gives  voice  to  rapture  and  hope.  It  is  love.  It  is  fellowship.  It  is 
triumph  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Song  is  the  wing  by  which  we 
rise  higher,  with  easier  beats,  than  by  any  other  ministration  of  the 
sanctuary.  And  where  can  you  get  it  as  you  find  it  in  Christian 
households  ?  Where  can  you  get  it  as  you  find  it  in  Christian  assem- 
blies ?  What  has  given  song  to  the  world  more  than  anything  else, 
is  not  bacchanalian  debauch,  is  not  wild  and  sparkling  gatherings 
of  men  for  pleasure :  it  is  the  soul  that  sings  of  immortality.  It  is 
the  soul  that  sings  of  love  and  gratitude.  That  has  given  the  world 
more  inspiration  of  music  than  all  other  things  put  together.  And 
sacred  song  is  yet  to  rule — as  it  ought  to.  And  if  song  is  to  rulcj 
we  must  remember  that  it  must  be  the  heart  that  sings,  and  not  the 
voice  nor  taste  alone.     Taste,  voice,  everything ;   but  the  heart  first. 

So,  too,  associated  Christian  life  gives  opportunity  to  help  those 
that  need  help.  If  one  has  the  good  fortune  of  education,  and  of 
original  balance  and  endowment,  and  is  able  to  govern  himself,  he 
may  not  need  any  exterior  help ;  but  that  is  no  reason  why  he  should 
scorn  those  that  do  need  it.  If  one  is  surrounded,  in  business,  and 
at  home,  by  ajl  the  restraints  that  he  needs,  that  is  no  reason  why 
he  should  not  associate  himself  with  those  who  do  need  other  re- 
straints than  those  which  belong  to  their  private  spheres  in  life.  And 
one  of  the  functions  of  the  church  is  to  take  care  of  its  members.  It 
does  do  it  to  a  certain  degree  ;  but  it  is  yet  in  the  wilderness.  It  is 
imperfectly  doing  its  work;  and  the  ideal  church  puts  to  shame  the 
real  church.  There  are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  the  church,  by 
stimulation  and  restraint,  holds  back  men,  and  helps  them  to  be  more 
religious ;  and  yet  it  falls  short  in  this  respect. 

These  were  some  of  the  reasons  that  acted  to  gather  the  church 
together ;  and  they  are  reasons  that  exist  still,  and  will  exist  to  the 
end  of  time.  The  church  is  founded,  therefore,  not  upon  any  exter- 
nal command  ;  and  not  upon  any  arbitrary  principle  of  obedience  are 
we  to  maintain  church  life.  The  reasons  for  it  are  inherent  in  hu- 
man nature.  The  desirableness  of  the  church  does  not  lie  in  its  sanc- 
tions, or  in  its  ordinances,  or  in  its  historical  elements,  but  in  the  life 
which  is  developed  in  it. 

Because  I  resent  the  oppression  of  the  external  church,  I  would 
not  be  understood  as  not  believing  in  the  reality  of  a  true  spiritual 
interior  church.     Because  I  say  that  no  man  shall  impose  upon  me, 


82  THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLE 

as  by  divine  authority,  ordinances  that  I  know  are  not  imperative ; 
because  I  aver  that  no  man  shall  presume  to  say  to  me,  "  You  are 
not  in  the  church,"  when  I  do  not  happen  to  be  in  the  fold  which 
he  likes  best  ;  because  I  will  not,  for  one  single  moment,  wink  at 
the  despotism  of  any  ecclesiastical  organization ;  because  I  say  that 
the  outside  matters  pertaining  to  the  church  are  all  of  them  of 
human  invention,  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  any  suppose  that  I  deny 
the  existence  of  the  church  itself.  That  is  not  of  human  invention. 
The  cominor  too-ether  of  those  that  are  rich  in  the  direction  of  a 
common  love,  and  their  acting  under  the  inspiration  of  a  common 
spiritual  feeling ;  the  coming  together  of  those  that  are  making  fight 
for  the  same  life,  under  the  same  banner,  and  with  the  same  hopes 
and  fears — the  coming  together  of  such  persons  in  a  real  household, 
is  natural  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word.  It  springs  from  neces- 
sities that  are  organic  in  man ;  that  are  created  in  him ;  that  are 
natural  to  him. 

It  is  not  because  the  word  went  out  eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
Forsake  not  the  assembling  of  yourselves  together,  that  I  desire  to  be 
united  with  others  in  Christian  life.  It  is  because  my  heart  calls 
out  for  other  hearts  that  are  congenial  to  it.  It  is  because  every  one 
who  has  learned  to  love  Christ  truly,  loves  his  brother,  and  longs  for 
fellowship  with  his  brother.  I  see  in  myself,  and  in  you  ;  I  see  in 
that  which  is  the  best  part  of  me,  and  the  best  part  of  you  ;  I  see 
in  our  joy,  in  our  faith,  in  our  holy  sympathy  one  with  another  ;  I 
see  in  our  common  labors  among  man — I  see  in  all  these  things,  the 
foundations  of  church-life.  And  I  believe  in  the  church,  not  because 
the  apostles  started  it,  but  because  God  made  men  so  that  they  can- 
not live  in  any  other  way  than  in  fellowship.  That  is  a  foundation 
that  is  deeper  than  any  other  ;  and  it  is  a  foundation  on  which  the 
church  exerts  a  more  potent  influence  than  it  could  if  it  were  on 
any  other  foundation. 

I  do  not  set  myself  against  ecclesiastical  establishments  for  those 
that  want  them.  If  a  man  wants  to  go  into  the  Episcopal  Church, 
and  wants  to  observe  days,  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  wants  to 
adopt  its  whole  ritual,  I  have  no  objection.  I  respect  that  church.  I 
have  a  thousand  reasons  for  doing  so.  And  though  I  do  not  need 
it  myself,  I  would  not  say  a  word,  nor  make  a  gesture,  to  offend  any 
one  to  whom  it  is  sacred.  It  is  only  when  the  stately  bishop  comes 
to  the  door  of  that  church  and  says,  "  We  are  the  people,  and  wis- 
dom shall  die  with  us — pass  on,  outsider,"  that  I  have  any  fault  to 
find.  But  then  I  raise  my  protest ;  and  I  say  to  him,  "  I  respect 
your  liberty  to  worship  Christ  in  your  own  way,  but  you  never  had 
delegated  to  you  the  power  to  cast  me  out.     It  was  God,  and  not 


IN  RELIGION.  83 

you,  that  called  me  ;  and  God  keeps  me  ;  and  I  am  his  disciple  just 
as  much  as  you  are.  And  where  two  or  three  of  us  are  gathered 
together,  there  is  Christ  in  the  midst  of  us — and  I  do  not  care  if 
there  is  not  a  bishop,  if  Christ  will  come." 

I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  you  shall  not  have  orders  m  the 
ministry,  if  you  want  them.  You  may  have  a  deacon  ;  you  may 
have  a  priest  ;  you  may  have  a  bishop  ;  you  may  have  a  cardinal  ; 
you  may  have  a  pope.  I  accord  that  liberty  to  all.  If  they  choose 
to  orgamize  themselves  so,  I  have  nothing  to  say.  It  is  not  that 
men  do  it  for  themselves  that  I  complain  of,  but  that  they  arrogate 
superiority  over  every  body  else,  and  over  everything  else,  and  that 
they  profess  to  have  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  whole  of  it  in 
themselves  ;  nay,  that  they  claim  to  have  certain  golden  channels 
that  run  clear  back  to  the  river  of  life,  and  that  there  is  not  a  drop 
issuinjr  out  from  under  the  throne  of  God  that  does  not  run  throu2:h 
their  channels.  It  is  when  men  make  these  extravagant  pretensions, 
and  set  up  these  preposterous  claims,  in  regard  to  the  external 
church — the  poorest  part  of  the  Church  (for  much  of  it  is  nothing 
but  bark,  and  not  living  bark  at  that) — it  is  then  that  I  set  myself 
against  it,  and  declare  the  liberty  of  the  spirit  as  against  the  bond- 
age of  forms. 

Men  sometimes  think  that  I  disown  baptism.  I  do  not.  I  put 
it  on  the  divine  ground.  I  use  it,  not  because  it  is  commanded,  but 
because  of  the  value  which  I  see  in  it.  I  use  it,  not  because  of  any 
authority  which  makes  it  binding,  but  because  I  think  that  it  is  a 
help  to  men  in  their  religious  life. 

I  say  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  not  obligatory  in  the  same  sense 
that  the  High  Church  people  think  it  is.  The  principle  on  which  I 
use  it  is  deeper  and  stronger  than  that  which  they  urge.  I  use  it 
because  there  is  a  living  principle  in  human  nature  which  demands 
it.  The  crying  out  of  the  soul  for  it  is  more  than  the  imposition  of 
it  by  a  stiff  and  hard  law. 

Men  say,  "  We  must  have  something  fixed."  You  have  some- 
thing fixed.  God  is  fixed.  The  soul  is  fixed.  Its  strifes  upward 
are  fixed.  These  things  arc  more  fixed  than  any  dogmas  or  ordinances 
of  the  church  can  be.  Men  seem  to  think  that  we  are  all  at  sea  and 
afloat ,  but  there  is  no  such  stability  as  belongs  to  life  itself.  I  puf^ 
the  soul-life  against  the  external  bodily  life.  I  put  the  interior 
spirit  against  these  externalities.  I  oppose  myself  to  the  bishop 
only  when  he  is  arrogant  and  encroaches  upon  my  liberty.  I  set 
myself  against  the  pope  only  when  he  attempts  to  be  my  pope.  I 
do  not  want  him.  I  am  pope  enough  for  myself !  I  set  myself 
against  neither  bishop  nor  pope,  when  they  are  my  brethren.    I  can 


84  THE  SOCIAL  FBINCIFLE 

take  the  bread  from  that  dearly  "beloved  man,  Bishop  Huntington, 
or  from  that  venerable  and  excellent  nxan,  Bishop  Potter,  with  the 
utmost  delight — nay,  with  reverence. 

Do  I  see  men  that  have  spent  themselves  for  Christ,  and  do 
not  you  suppose  that  I  know  their  worth,  and  love  them  ?  I  love  to 
look  up  to  people.  I  wish  there  were  more  that  I  could  look  up  to ! 
I  have  no  repugnance  in  that  direction.  It  is  only  when  men  assume 
authority  that  I  draw  back  from  them.  There  is  the  point.  We 
are  all  Christlike,  in  my  view,  if  we  love  each  other.  If  you  are  my 
brother,  love  me.  If  you  are  my  brother,  we  are  knit  together.  I 
will  follow  as  long  as  it  is  love  that  leads  ;  but  the  moment  that 
any  man  begins  to  be  the  monarch,  giving  law  with  authority,  that 
moment,  with  all  the  allegiance  which  I  bear  to  Christ,  I  defy  him, 
saying,  "  I  am  a  Christian  man,  and  a  man  in  Chi-ist  Jesus  is  free." 

And  yet,  the  imagination  of  men  has  been  stained  through  and 
through  with  these  claims.  I  do  not  wonder  at  it.  But  we  will 
get  it  out  of  the  world  before  long.  There  is  the  notion,  that 
to  be  of  any  account  a  thing  must  have  a  certain  straight,  rigid  or- 
der, a  certain  succession.  Well,  is  it  so  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  the 
dearest,  the  most  influential,  and  the  most  permanent  things  are 
those  which  have  no  such  fixity  and  necessity  of  external  order  ? 

Here  is  a  group  gathered  together  in  the  family ;  but  they  never 
heard  father  nor  mother  say,  "  My  son,  have  you  ever  considered 
that  it  was  your  duty  to  fall  in  love  ?  I  enjoin  you,  by  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  fidelity,  to  go  somewhere  and  fall  in  love  with  somebody." 
Does  not  the  spontaneous  need  of  the  heart  take  care  of  that,  without 
any  parental  exhortation  ?  When  two  natures  are  fitted  to  each 
other  (though  they  are  not  always  so  well  fitted)  does  not  the  nature 
in  them  interpret  all  that  is  necessary  ?  Not  even  language  is 
needful.  The  ten  thousandth  part  of  a  look  speaks  louder  than 
trumpets.  And  when  the  life  of  true  love  kindles,  do  they  need  to 
say  to  each  other,  "  Now  we  ought  to  go  before  a  magistrate  and 
tell  him  it  is  begun  ?"  Do  we  need  such  external  relationships  in 
matters  of  this  kind  ?  Does  not  the  heart  brood  ?  Are  not  silence 
and  secretiveness  a  part  of  the  original  nature  of  a  delicate  and 
true  beginning  of  love  ?  And,  at  last,  the  promise  and  the  pledge 
are  interchanged  and  fulfilled,  and  the  household  is  founded,  and 
the  life  thrives,  and  burdens  are  all  winged,  moving  so  easily  that 
even  sorrows  begin  to  have  shining  plumes  about  their  neck  ;  then 
all  the  life  is  singing  through  the  household,  though  there  is  pov- 
erty, it  is  blessed  poverty,  and  there  are  content  and  joy  with  it. 
And  as,  little  by  little,  the  population  of  the  household  increases,  and 
the  father  grows  proud,  and  the  mother  grows  justly  proud,  is  there 


INEELIGION.  85 

any  other  pride  so  noble  as  theirs  ?  Is  there  any  pride  to  be  com- 
pared with  that  of  loving  parents,  in  each  other  and  in  their  chil" 
dren  ?  Is  there  any  other  gratitude  so  deep  as  that  of  parents' 
hearts  which  they  give  for  healthy  and  virtuous  children,  and  chil- 
dren that  are  brought  up,  at  last,  safe  ?  If  there  is  anything  else  so 
deep  as  that,  I  do  not  know  what  it  is. 

Well,  life  flows  on.  The  hair  of  the  parents  is  turning  gray. 
There  have  been  some  little  imperfections  ;  there  have  been  here  and 
there  cloudy  days  of  experience ;  yet  in  the  main  the  life  has  gone 
through  happily.  The  children  have  settled  down  in  spheres  of 
usefulness.  And  at  last  they  follow  the  mother  to  the  grave.  And  as 
they  return  to  their  house  they  arc  met  at  the  door  by  one  who  draws 
a  contrast  between  their  condition  and  his,  "  I  live,"  he  says,  "  in 
a  house  that  has  been  in  our  family  three  hundred  years.  You  have 
been  living  in  a  house  that  has  no  antiquity,  nothing  to  it.  I  am 
the  son  of  Timothy,  and  he  was  the  son  of  Jacob,  and  he  was  the 
son  of  Peter  ;  and  I  can  trace  my  lineage  back  to  the  flood.  And  my 
wife  is  of  that  other  old  family  ;  and  you  can  trace  her  relationship 
all  the  way  wp.  And  we  have  lived  in  the  greatest  consideration  of 
all  the  historic  circumstances  of  our  descent.  We  have  had  every- 
thing in  our  house  fixed  and  right."  Do  you  not  suppose  that  the 
close  sympathy  and  loving  heart-life  of  the  humbler  family  is  worth 
all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  mere  antiquity  of  family  ? 

Now,  far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  if  a  man  has  love  and  vir- 
tue, and  the  power  of  joy,  it  is  not  a  good  thing  for  him  to  have, 
also,  honorable  connections,  running  away  back  on  the  father's  and 
mother's  side.  And  far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  where  one  is  cul- 
tured, and  has  the  facility  for  enjoying  such  things,  it  is  not  a  good 
thing  to  have  a  mansion,  in  a  park,  with  all  delightful  circumstances. 
If  you  can  have  them  both,  it  is  better  than  to  have  either  alone ; 
but  if  you  are  going  to  separate  them,  which  is  regent,  which  is  to 
take  the  precedence,  heart-life  without  external  circumstances,  or 
.external  circumstances  without  heart-life  ? 

Now,  I  hold  that  in  church-life  men  may  justly  feel  proud  if  they 
can  trace  back  their  church-forms.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  trace 
church-forms  back  to  the  apostles  just  as  we  have  them  here  in  Plym- 
outh Church  ;  and  I  think  that  by  exercising  a  little  ingenuity  I  could 
trace  back  a  great  many  things  a  good  ways.  I  think  we  have  al- 
most everything  the  apostles  had.  In  the  apostolic  church  they  had 
men  that  were  not  worthy  of  the  name  of  Christ,  and  so  have  we  in 
our  church.  They  had  men  that  were  stingy,  and  so  have  we.  They 
had  many  ignorant  people,  and  so  have  we.  They  had  fault-finders, 
and  so  have  we.    We  have  many  of  the  apostolic  seals.    I  see  it 


86  THE  SOCIAL  FEIKCIPLJE 

as  plainly  as  can  be,  though  I  am  not,  perhaps,  as  proud  of  it  as  I 
might  be. 

The  peculiarity  of  tracing  back  the'congregational  church,  is  that 
it  has  no  form.  It  is  the  gathering  together,  without  external  form 
(or  with  as  little  external  form  as  possible)  of  those  that  ai-e  brought, 
by  elective  affinity,  into  association  with  each  other,  in  one  place, 
where  they  worship  together  in  one  way.  And  I  have  no  objection 
to  any  Episcopal  communion  tracing  itself  back  as  far  as  England. 
There  is  no  harm  in  taking  an  old  house  to  pieces  and  building  a  new 
house  out  of  the  materials  of  the  old.  And  if  our  Episcopal  Church 
is  formed  from  the  elements  of  the  Church  of  England,  it  is  no 
worse  for  that.  And  it  would  be  a  matter  of  some  antiquarian  pleas- 
ure to  trace  it  back  to  England,  and,  similarly,  for  the  Church  of 
England  to  find  its  source  in  the  older  Roman  hierarchy.  I  do  not 
object  to  persons  having  a  love  for  such  things.  All  I  say  is,  that 
they  are  incidental  and  collateral. 

I  like  to  see  swallows  build  nests  under  the  roof  of  my  house  in 
the  country — and  they  do  ;  but  if  there  were  not  a  swallow  on  the 
premises,  my  home  would  be  about  the  same  interiorly  as  it  is  now. 

I  like  to  see  the  clematis  climb  about  the  doors  of  my  house — 
and  it  does.  I  like  to  plant  vines  and  bushes  about  my  dwelling. 
They  make  it  sweeter  and  more  delightful.  I  never  open  my  win- 
dow in  summer,  that  a  hundred  flowers  do  not  send  in  their  airy 
thanks' to  me.  But  give  me  my  inside  life  ;  give  me  my  companions 
in  the  household,  and  if  there  were  not  a  flower  on  all  the  lawn,  nor 
a  vine  on  all  the  building,  it  would  be  home  to  me  still. 

I  am  not  iconoclastic.  I  do  not  set  my  face  against  any  sect.  I 
do  not  complain  of  the  Quaker  for  his  barrenness,  nor  of  the  Epis- 
copalian for  his  floridness,  nor  of  the  Presbyterian  for  his  rigidity 
and  authority.  I  stand  and  say :  "  I  accord  the  utmost  liberty  to 
ou,  but  you  shall  not  attempt  to  compress  me  into  your  forms.  T 
will  be  free  ;  and  I  affirm  that  my  freedom  is  as  legitimate  as  yours." 
If  there  is  a  way  in  which  you  are  satisfied  that  you  thrive  best,, 
thrive  in  that  way  ;  and  as  this  is  the  way  in  which  we  thrive  best, 
we  will  thrive  in  this  way.  But  you  shall  not  say  that  I  ignore  the 
church,  or  destroy  the  foundations  of  church  life,  because  I  say  that 
the  foundations  of  the  church  are  in  the  heart,  and  not  outside,  in 
buildings,  or  ordinances,  or  government,  or  theological  dogmas. 

The  reasons,  then,  why  I  call  men  into  church  association,  are 
reasons  that  are  far  more  powerful,  I  think,  than  those  which  operate 
in  the  hierarchial  churclies,  if  I  may  call  them  so.  But  to  say  to  a 
man,  "  You  shall  join  the  church  because  it  is  the  command  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  presenting  the  idea  of  authority  in  the  most 


J2V  BELIGION.  87 

barren,  and  to  me  the  most  offensive  way.  The  command  of  Christ 
I  find  in  you,  and  not  in  history.  I  can  find  no  explicit  command 
of  this  kind  in  the  whole  of  the  four  Gospels.  I  can  find  in  the 
apostolic  writings  an  implication  of  already  existing  principles  of 
association ;  I  can  find  incidental  allusions  to  gatherings  of  Chris- 
tians as  being  already  established  ;  but  nowhere  can  I  find  a  specific 
command  to  organize  a  church  ;  nor  any  command  as  to  how  it  is  to 
be  organized ;  nor  one  single  hint  that  there  is  an  external  or  legal 
obligation  on  that  subject.  Where  is  the  obligation  ?  If  anywhere, 
inside.     If  not  there,  nowhere. 

Men  and  brethren,  have  we  come  to  such  a  miserable  condition 
that  we  cannot  understand  that  a  thing  may  be  obligatory  upon  us, 
though  it  is  not  a  matter  of  fixed  law  ?  Is  there  anything  known  in 
the  statute  of  the  land  which  requires,  when  I  meet  a  lady,  that  I 
shall  take  off  my  hat  ?  And  yet,  would  I  meet  a  lady,  if  I  Avere  in 
my  senses,  without  paying  some  respect  to  her  ?  And  is  there  any 
law  that  could  make  me  do  it  as  quick  as  I  would  do  it  Avithout  a 
law? 

If  you  know  that  your  neighbor  is  sick,  do  you  need  a  law  to 
tell  you  to  go  and  minister  to  his  wants  ?  Is  there  not  that  in  you 
which  makes  you  feel  that  it  is  your  duty  to  do  it  ?  Do  not  the  in- 
stincts of  manhood  move  you  quicker  than  any  human  enactment  ? 
LaAvs  for  those  that  need  laAvs ;  but  the  moment  that  a  man  is  so 
quick  and  sensitive  that  he  folloAvs  spiritual  necessity  and  influence 
promptly  and  truly,  that  moment  he  can  do  without  the  law  what 
other  people  have  to  do  by  the  law.  And  when  a  man  does  right 
Avithout  being  goaded  to  it,  he  does  it  better  than  he  would  if  he  had 
to  be  goaded  to  it.  When  a  man  is  a  laAv  to  himself,  he  stands  on 
a  higher  plane  than  when  he  needs  to  be  restrained  by  humanly 
enacted  laws.  I  do  not  mean  that  a  man  is  to  be  a  law  unto  himselt 
in  the  sense  of  throAving  off  external  law.     The  apostle  says, 

"  Brethren,  ye  have  beau  called  unto  liberty ;  only  use  not  liberty  as  an 
occasion  to  the  flesh." 

You  are  called  to  liberty ;  but  it  is  a  liberty  to  go  higher  and 
not  lower.  It  is  a  liberty  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  higher  life, 
and  not  a  license  to  enter  upon  all  sorts  of  indulgences. 

The  ground,  then,  on  Avhich  I  ask  persons  to  join  the  church,  is 
primarily  this :  that  they  are  to  be  united  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
I  appeal  to  the  highest  form  of  reason,  and  to  the  highest  form  of 
moral  sense,  and  ask.  Is  there  any  man  that  lives  who  can  possibly, 
for  one  single  moment,  standing  out  of  the  bcAvilderment  of  contro- 
A'ersy,  deny  that  he  is  under  obligation  to  be  faithful,  if  not -to  any 
other  creature  in  the  universe,  at  least  to  Him  that  loved  him,  and 


88  THE  SOCIAL  FEINCIPLE 

gave  himself  for  him  ?  I  say  that  the  dearest  name  on  earth,  to  you, 
ought  to  be  the  name  that  your  father  loved,  the  name  that  your 
mother  worshipped,  and  the  name  that  filled  your  childhood  with 
wholesome  awe  and  reverence.  And  because  it  is  unnatural  for  you 
not  to  be  united  in  faith,  and  hope,  and  love,  and  obedience,  to  your 
God,  I  call  upon  every  man  to  enter  upon  a  Christian  life — that  is, 
upon  a  personal  union  with  Christ.  I  call  upon  you  to  open  your  soul 
so  that  the  divine  influence  shall  find  entrance  to  you,  and  give  you 
inspiration,  and  a  spiritual  perception  of  what  is  seemly,  and  just,  and 
of  good  report.  I  call  upon  every  man  to  enter  upon  a  Christian 
life  from  the  highest  considerations — those  of  fidelity ;  those  of 
fealty ;  those  of  love  and  gratitude  to  God. 

And  when  you  have  begun  to  live  a  Christian  life,  your  soul  will 
tell  you  why  you  ought  to  come  into  church  association.  You  will 
find  Christian  life  easier  then.  You  will  find  sympathy.  And  others 
who  have  had  doubts  will  be  helped  by  your  experience.  Often- 
times the  experience  of  one  man  clears  the  path  of  another  man. 

I  call  you  into  church  fellowship,  then,  not  because  there  is  an 
external  law  that  says  you  must  go  into  the  church,  but  because  in 
church-fellowship  you  will  live  happier,  more  easily,  and  upon  a 
higher  level ;  because  the  public  sentiment  that  surrounds  you  will 
be  a  mighty  tide  that  will  buoy  you  up.  I  call  you  to  church-fel- 
lowship for  reasons  that  inhere  in  your  own  experience,  and  in 
your  own  profit.  Do  you  love  Christ?  Then  you  should  love 
Christ's  children.  Do  you  love  your  father  and  mother  ?  and  do 
you  hate  your  brother  and  sister  ? 

"  Well  but,"  says  one,  "  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  worthy."  If  you 
mean  by  that  that  you  are  conscious  that  you  are  living  in  the  com- 
mission, secretly  or  openly,  of  practices  that  are  disallowed  by  mor- 
ality, and  that  are  abhorrent  to  religion,  then  my  reply  to  your 
objection  is,  Forsake  evil,  and  learn  to  do  well,  and  still  press  for- 
ward in  a  Christian  life,  and  with  the  Christian  church.  But  if  you 
mean  that  you  have  not  attained  to  that  condition  of  spiritual  ex- 
cellence of  which  you  have  a  conception,  my  reply  is,  that  you  are 
like  a  school-boy  who  hangs  about  the  school-house  door,  saying,  "  I 
am  afraid  to  go  in.  I  do  not  think  1  know  enough  to  go  to  school." 
What  is  a  school  for  ?  Is  it  for  knowing  boys,  or  for  ignorant  boys  ? 

The  church  is  a  curative  institution.  It  is  an  educating  institu- 
tion. Like  every  household,  it  has  something  of  everything  in  it. 
And  because  you  are  not  worthy  is  one  reason  why  you  should  be  in 
the  church. 

"  0  well,"  many  say,  "  I  fear  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to  maintain 
all  the  duties  and  obligations  that  rest  on  a  Christian."  There  is  not 


IN  BELIGION,  .  89 

a  duty  nor  an  obligation  that  rests  on  a  Christian,  that  does  not  rest 
on  you.  There  is  not  a  single  duty  that  will  be  incumbent  upon 
you  when  you  go  into  the  church,  that  is  not  incumbent  upon  you 
now.  Is  there  any  obligation  greater  than  this :  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  hearty  and  mind,  and  soul,  and 
strength,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself?  And  does  that  rest  on  you 
when  you  go  into  the  church  any  more  than  it  did  before  ?  From 
the  day  that  you  were  born,  almost ;  from  the  time  that  you  were 
old  enough  to  discern  your  right  hand  from  your  left,  that,  obliga- 
tion has  rested  upon  you.  And  that  is  the  great  obligation,  tran- 
scending all  others,  which  will  rest  upon  you  when  you  go  into  the 
church.  It  rests  upon  you  whether  you  are  in  the  church  or  out  of  it. 

It  is  a  shame  for  you  to  be  a  sinning  man  ;  it  is  a  shame  for  you 
to  be  an  un-God-fearing  man ;  it  is  a  shame  for  you  to  fritter  away 
your  time  ;  it  is  a  shame  for  you  to  refuse  allegiance  to  God.  You 
treat  him  with  dishonor.  You  treat  him  as  you  would  not  treat 
your  neighbor.  You  would  be  ashamed  to  do  by  a  fellow-man  what 
you  are  not  ashamed  to  do  by  your  God.  And  I  appeal  to  you,  by 
all  that  is  honorable  and  all  that  is  right-minded  in  you,  to  begin  a 
higher  life,  and  to  begin  it  in  association  with  others  that  are  at- 
tempting to  do  the  same  thing. 

If  you  think  you  will  fail,  I  think  you  will  fail.  I  never  knew  a 
man  that  did  not  fail.  Yet  the  motto  is,  "  Cast  down  but  not  de- 
stroyed." If  you  stumble  and  fall,  get  up  again.  You  are  like  men 
journeying,  part  of  the  time  through  a  morass,  and  part  of  the  time 
up  rugged  hills,  and  part  of  the  time  in  thickets  that  tear  them.  And 
it  is  not  for  you  to  insist  that  you  will  not  walk  a  Christian  life  un- 
less you  can  be  in  the  king's  highway,  and  unless  you  can  keep 
yourself  intact.  And  I  call  you  into  the  church  that  you  may  be 
more  profited  in  it  than  you  can  be  out  of  it.  I  call  you  to  a  church 
life  because  you  need  it. 

Do  you  say,  "  I  have  all  the  restraints  that  I  need  " ;  or,  "  I  do 
not  need  this  inspiration  "  ?  Do  you  say,  "  My  house  is  better  than 
any  other  place.  I  can  sit  at  home  on  Sunday  ;  I  can  read  sermons ; 
I  can  look  out  on  the  bay ;  I  can  wander  in  the  forests  ;  I  can  make 
a  better  use  of  my  time  than  by  going  to  that  miserable  little  vil- 
lage church,  and  hearing  a  humdrum  sermon  which  does  not  do 
me  any  good  "  ?  That  is  the  way  you  have  begun  to  live  a  life  of 
love,  is  it  ? 

Here  is  a  man  who  has  an  income  of  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  and 
he  is  living  in  a  village  where  there  is  not  a  man  who  gets  more 
than  a  dollar  a  day.  There  is  trouble  and  poverty  and  sickness 
all  about  him ;  but  he  stays  at  home  and  says,  "  I  find  more  comfort 


90  THE  SOCIAL  PBINCIPLE 

in  my  house  than  in  going  to  these  squalid  cottages.  I  have  to  go 
and  take  supper  with  these  poor  people,  and  mumble  their  miserable 
crusts ;  and  I  do  not  like  it." 

What  do  you  think  of  that  for  a  benevolent  man,  who  stays  at 
home  because  it  is  pleasanter  there  ?  He  is  so  favored  and  fortunate 
that  he  thinks  it  his  duty  to  be  selfish  !  There  is  many  a  man  who 
is  so  dainty  that  he  says,  "  I  am  not  going  to  mix  with  common 
church-people."  There  is  fellowship  for  you  !  You  are  so  well 
cultured,  you  are  so  far  developed  in  the  spiritual  life,  that  you  are 
able  to  minister  to  yourself ;  and  so  you  say,  "  I  am  not  going  into 
fellowship  with  those  that  are  below  me."  There  are  thousands  of 
men  who  need  what  you  can  give  them — your  example  and  your 
sympathy.  They  need  to  be  made  to  feel  that  men  who  are  higher 
in  life  than  they,  do  not  feel  above  them.  But  if  men  like  you  were 
obedient  to  the  Scripture  injunction.  Condescend  to  men  of  low  estate, 
their  fellow-men  all  through  the  community  would  be  greatly  com- 
forted, and  lifted  far  up  toward  heaven.  If  you  know  you  can  get 
along  yourself,  do  not  forget  that  there  are  others  who  need  much 
assistance  in  getting  along. 

If  you  were  a  prince,  and  were  riding  in  a  gilded  carriage,  and 
you  saw  a  peasant's  brat  suffering  by  the  road-side,  it  would  be  be- 
coming in  you  to  stop  and  take  the  miserable  creature  in,  and  let  it 
ride  ;  and  if  the  mother  were  there  faint  and  weary,  it  would  be  be- 
coming in  you  to  take  her  in  also.  It  might  soil  your  coach,  and  it 
might  disgust  your  servants ;  but  was  ever  a  kingly  coach  put  to  a 
better  use  than  that  of  carrying  God's  poor  ?  If  you  are  as  much 
better  as  you  think,  humility  would  make  you  better  yet ;  and  sym- 
pathy would  make  you  still  better.  And  you  who  do  not  think  that 
you  need  the  church,  remember  that  there  are  dying  men  who  need 
you. 

Besides,  there  is  another  thing.  I  do  not  think  one  ought  to 
sail  under  false  colors.  You  are  a  moral  man,  and  a  kind  man  ; 
and  wherever  you  are  known  in  all  your  neighborhood,  the  im- 
pression is  that  you  will  not  go  into  the  church.  And  men,  com- 
paring you  with  persons  in  the  church  who  are  not  as  good  as  you 
are,  come  to  think  that  morality  makes  better  men  than  the  church 
does.  So  you  are  bearing  false  witness.  They  say,  '*  There  is  a 
man  who  has  not  religion,"  and  yet,  you  secretly  have  religion. 
For  you  go  to  the  same  throne  of  grace  that  I  do.  You  read 
from  the  same  Bible  that  I  do.  You  have  the  same  belief  and 
hope  that  I  have.  It  is  from  God  that  you  get  the  oil  which  makes 
your  lamp  burn  ;  and  men  do  not  glorify  God,  but  they  glorify 
you.     Pointing  to   you,  and  to  others,  they  say,  "  That  man  has 


IN  BELIGION.  91 

morality,  and  these  men  have  spirituality  and  are  church  members, 
but  he  lives  a  more  exemplary  life  than  they  do."  There  may  be  a 
hundred  reasons  for  this  discrepancy  which  they  do  not  know,  and 
which  you  do  not  know.  The  ignorance  of  those  men,  their  tempta- 
tions, and  the  troubles  and  trials  of  their  business,  may  all  conspire 
to  make  it  difficult  for  them  to  be  consistent  Christians.  And  it 
ought  not  to  be  supposed  that  their  imperfections  are  the  fault  of 
the  church  or  of  religion.  And  I  hold  that  if  a  man  is  living  by  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  he  ought  somehow  and  somewhere 
to  let  it  be  known.  He  ought  to  confess  the  source  of  his  inspiration. 
If  you  are  enabled  to  resist  temptation,  and  Christ  enables  you  to 
do  it,  you  ought  to  confess  it  before  the  world  somehow  or  other. 
If  you  are  living  a  noble  and  pure  life,  and  it  is  Christ  that  enables 
you  to  live  such  a  life,  you  ought  to  acknowledge  it  among  men.  If 
heaven  is  the  source  from  which  you  are  deriving  your  life  and 
strength,  oh  !  let  men  know  where  you  get  medicine,  and  where  you 
dig  gold,  that  they,  too,  may  have  the  same  recourse.  Do  not  bear 
false  witness.  Do  not  leave  men  to  think  that  you  owe  to  morality 
what  you  are  secretly  receiving  from  God. 

I  shaped  this  sermon  for  two  reasons  :  partly  because,  having  had 
occasion,  in  some  sermons  lately,  to  speak  of  the  bondage  of  exter- 
nalities at  the  expense  of  the  interior  life,  I  do  not  want  to  have  it 
thought  that  I  undervalue  church-life  and  church-fellowship  ;  and 
partly  because  there  are  many  in  this  congregation  who  ought  to 
make  a  public  profession  of  their  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
There  are  many  of  you  who  are  living  lives  of  prayer  ;  there  are 
many  of  you  who  are  redeemed  from  death  by  the  power  of  faith  ; 
there  are  many  of  you  who  only  need  to  take  the  step  of  entering 
upon  a  declared  Christian  life.  And  I  feel  that  the  time  has  come 
for  you  to  do  it.  Many  of  you  ought  to  say  to  your  children,  "  I 
am  a  Christian  man."  There  are  many  of  you  whose  children  need 
to  hear  you  say  it.  There  are  many  of  you  that  have  neighbors  who 
would  be  greatly  edified  and  strengthened  if  you  were  to  array  your- 
self with  God's  people.  If  you  were  to  take  that  step,  you  do  not 
know  how  many  you  would  draw  after  you.  If  a  river-boom  breaks 
away,  trunk  after  trunk,  branch  after  branch,  refuse  of  every 
description,  that  has  been  collecting  for  weeks,  and  months,  and 
perhaps  years — the  whole  raft  goes  after  it.  And  there  are  men 
who  stand  like  a  boom  in  the  community.  One  man  backs  iip 
against  another,  and  there  they  remain  until  the  obstruction  is  re- 
moved. And  there  are  men  in  this  congregation  who,  if  they  would 
honestly  and  openly  avouch  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ^and  publicly 


92  TEE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLE 

"bear  witness  to  tlieir  faith  in  him,  by  uniting  with  the  brethren  here, 
would  bring  in  scores  and  scores  with  them. 

The  first  Sabbath  in  May  is  coming.  It  is  always  a  Sabbath  cel- 
ebrated as  memorable  among  us ;  it  is  a  flower-day  There  is  not 
another  Sunday  of  the  year  that  is  such  a  Sunday  of  ingathering  as 
that.  It  is  very  precious  to  many  families.  Some  of  you  have  saints 
in  heaven  that  come  into  this  church  on  the  first  Sunday  of  May  ; 
the  memory  is  sweet  to  you ;  and  you  would  like  to  have  all  your 
other  children  come  in  on  that  Sunday,  because  it  brings  the  living 
and  the  departed  so  nearly  together.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  crystaline 
day  in  this  church.  It  is  going,  this  year,  to  be  a  crowded  Sabbath ; 
and  many  of  you  ought  to  come  in.  Your  objections  are  not  worthy 
of  longer  delay.  It  seems  to  me  that  your  impulses,  so  long  sup- 
pressed, ought  to  bear  you  forward,  that  your  sense  of  duty  ought 
to  be  fulfilled,  that  you  ought  to  join  your  strength  to  the  sti'cngth 
of  your  brethren,  and  in  the  presence  of  them  all  avouch  the  Lord 
Jehovah  to  be  your  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  to  be  your  Saviour,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  your  Sanctifier. 

The  time  is  short.  We  are  admonished  by  one  and  another  that 
are  taken.  One  peg  after  another,  and  one  cord  aftei  another,  of 
the  tent,  is  snapped,  or  is  drawn  out  of  the  sand,  and  very  soon  this 
tabernacle  shall  be  taken  down,  and  we  shall  all  give  place  to  others. 
Another  generation  is  crowding  us ;  and  what  you  do  you  must  do 
quickly.  If  among  you  there  are  any  who  have  neglected  their 
opportunities  for  many  years,  let  them  bear  in  mind  that  if  they 
Berve  Christ,  they  must  begin  at  once  for  they  have  but  a  little 
time  left. 

Fathers,  for  your  children's  sake,  for  your  own  sake,  and  for 
Christ's  sake,  I  pray  you,  come  into  the  fellowship  of  Christ  and  the 
brotherhood.  Mothers,  of  all  in  the  world,  ought  not  to  set  such  an 
example  to  their  children  as  will  shipwreck  them,  I  pray  you,  bring 
the  sweet  offering  of  a  grateful  and  regenerate  heart,  and  lay  it  on 
the  altar  of  the  Lord.  Young  men,  maidens,  all  that  hope  for  salva- 
tion through  Jesus  Christ,  for  a  victorious  death  and  a  triumphant 
resurrection,  I  invoke  you  to  gather  yourselves  together  into  the  fel- 
lowship of  love,  into  the  brotherhood  of  saints,  into  the  household 
of  God. 


TAT  BELIGION.  93 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Thou  that  dost  guide  our  thoughts,  and  inspire  our  feelings,  grant  unto 
us  now  that  inward  light  and  inspiration  by  which  we  shall  pray  for  the 
things  which  we  need,  as  we  ought.  We  thank  thee  that  we  are  supplied ; 
that  from  thine  open  hand  our  outward  life  is  maintained ;  that  we  are 
given  suificient  strength  and  skill  to  maintain  from  day  to  day  all  our  out- 
ward relations,  and  to  supply  our  wants.  "We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast 
put  within  the  reach  of  our  own  powers  the  fruit  of  affection,  and  that  we 
gather  from  all  the  amenities  and  associations  of  the  household  the  blessings 
of  love.  We  rejoice  that  there  is  something  better  than  food  for  the  body, 
or  even  for  the  ordinary  affections,  and  that  we  may  rise  together  into  a 
realm  yet  higher,  to  meet  thee,  to  find  ourselves  the  citizens  of  a  better 
country,  membeis  of  a  nobler  household— even  the  household  of  God. 

Oh!  how  little  do  we  know  of  this  upper  life  and  realm!  How  little  do 
we  know  of  the  things  that  are  within  our  reach !  How  little  do  we  know 
of  the  things  which  are  beyond  our  ordinary  grasp  !  It  is  thy  Spirit  that 
maketh  intercession  through  us  with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered. 

We  pray  for  the  mediation  and  the  help  of  the  divine  Spirit  in  us,  so  that 
we  may  not  only  ask  the  things  which  we  consciously  need,  but  may  learn 
to  ask  the  unknown  things  which  we  need  more  than  the  known.  We  pray 
that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us  intimacy,  fellowship,  life,  day  by  day— life 
hidden  in  thine,  that  all  the  sources  of  our  life  may  be  in  God,  in  whom  we 
live  and  have  our  being.  We  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins.  We  pray 
for  a  heart  set  free  from  a  life  of  sin.  We  pray  that  we  may  have  evidence 
in  us  that  by  thy  blessed  help  we  are  from  day  to  day  overcoming  easily  be- 
setting sins ;  that  we  are  strong  against  evil ;  that  we  are  powerful  to  resist 
temptation,  and  to  subdue  it. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  I  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us  more  and 
mor©  to  grow  into  the  image  of  God;  that  we  may  find  in  ourselves  the 
likeness  of  our  Father  more  and  more  clearly  coming  out.  We  pray  that 
we  may  be  strengthened  in  all  that  is  good,  and  that  goodness  in  us  may 
take  on  higher  and  higher  forms  from  day  to  day.  And  as  the  time  is  draw- 
ing near  when  we  must  lay  aside  these  mortal  bodies;  as  all  things  which 
minister  to  them  are  growing  less  and  less  of  account  to  us,  grant  that  we 
may  have  evidence  that  we  have  a  life  with  God,  and  that  we  are  preparing 
for  the  fellowship  of  the  higher  life  in  heaven.  More  and  more  may  invis- 
ible treasure  begin  to  have  value  with  us.  More  and  more  may  we  live  by 
faith.  May  we  be  blessed  by  hope.  May  we  have  a  holy  fear,  looking  unto 
things  which  are  reserved,— unto  that  rest  which  remaineth  unto  the  people 
of  God,  And  while  we  are  not  to  ask  that  we  may  be  set  free  from  these 
mortal  bodies,  and  the  duties  that  are  now  incumbent  upon  us,  yet  may  we 
have  a  gladness  of  heart;  may  we  anticipate  with  holy  joy  the  time  when 
we  shall  be  free  from  the  body,  and  from  its  temptations,  and  from  its  bur- 
dens, and  from  its  sorrows,  and  from  its  sufferings,  and  shall  rise  and  be  as 
the  angels  of  God.  We  pray  that  unto  this  communion,  unto  these  holy 
hopes  and  aspirations,  all  they  may  be  brought  who  are  dear  to  us.  May  all 
our  households  become  households  of  faith.  May  all  those  whom  we  are 
associated  with  in  daily  business,  have  in  them  the  beginnings  of  this  higher 
life.  Grant  that  everywhere  we  may  be  able  to  carry  out  the  fruit  of  a  true 
piety,  in  all  gentleness,  in  all  humility,  in  all  honor  and  fidelity,  so  that  men, 
seeing  our  good  works,  may  glorify  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

We  pray  for  all  that  are  in  trouble.  Whatever  it  may  be,  we  commend 
them  to  thy  succor,  and  to  thy  comforting  spirit.    We  pray  for  all  that  are 


94  THE  SOCIAL  FBINCIFLE  IN  RELIGION. 

burdened  and  vexed  with  worldly  things.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  as 
their  day  is,  their  strength  may  be  also.  And  may  they  not  be  led  by  temp- 
tation, nor  by  any  pressure,  out  of  the  straight  and  narrow  way. 

We  pray  for  all  those  who  are  endeavoring  to  build  up  thy  cause  and  thy 
kingdom.  May  they  have  grace  given  them  to  do  it  wisely.  And  not  only 
grant  that  they  may  be  able  to  speak  the  words  of  truth,  but  grant  that 
they  may  be  able,  in  their  daily  life  and  conversation,  to  bear  out  the  testi- 
mony of  Christ  more  perfectly  than  by  word  or  by  doctrine. 

We  pray  for  the  poor,  for  the  outcast,  for  the  neglected,  for  the  vicious, 
for  the  criminal,  for  all  that  are  in  jails  and  in  prisons,  for  all  that  are  in 
hospitals,  for  all  that  are  in  asylums,  for  all  that  are  not  gathered,  but  that 
wander  in  the  ways  of  wickedness  and  license.  We  beseech  of  thee  that 
thou  wilt  grant  that  there  may  be  more  and  more  effort  for  the  ingather- 
ing of  the  wandering  sheep.  Bring  them  back  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop 
of  their  souls. 

We  pray,  to-day,  that  all  who  are  gathered  together  in  thy  name  may 
find  thee  in  the  midst  of  them.  Fulfill  thy  most  gracious  promises  to  them 
all.  Grant  that  there  may  be  more  and  more  strength  given  to  feeble 
Churches.  More  and  more  may  their  wants  be  supplied  by  able  men,  min- 
istering in  thy  name.  Spread  abroad  the  light  of  truth ;  spread  abroad  the 
hope  of  the  Gospel ;  spread  abroad  the  salvation  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  until 
all  nations  shall  know  thee,  and  thy  name  shall  be  honored  in  all  the  earth, 
and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away,  and  righteousness  shall  abide  for- 
ever.   And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Command  thy  blessing,  our  heavenly  Father,  upon  the  word  spoken. 
Grant  that  it  may  go  forth  with  a  sacred  leaven  from  on  high,  and  that  it 
may  work  in  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  every  one  of  thy  creatures.  Sanc- 
tify to  us  the  privileges  of  our  earthly  estate.  We  rejoice  in  thy  Church. 
We  rejoice  in  this  great  spiritual,  invisible,  glorious  communion  with  thy 
saints.  We  rejoice  that  from  our  childhood  we  knew  of  it,  and  felt  its 
power.  We  thank  thee  for  the  preciousness  of  its  associations,  and  for  the 
preciousness  of  the  experience  which  we  have  had  in  connection  with  it. 
Where  is  there  such  love  as  that  which  we  have  formed  in  thy  Church? 
We  rejoice  in  it,  and  pray  that  it  may  carry  with  it  more  divine  power. 
And  may  the  earth  at  last  feel  its  influence,  and  be  filled  with  thy  glory. 
We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 


V. 

The  Faith  of  Love. 


Thou  that  dwellest  in  light,  wilt  thou  grant  unto  us,  this  morning,  the 
light  of  thy  countenance,  the  joy  of  thy  salvation.  Help  our  thoughts,  this 
day,  to  forsake  all  thiugs  familiar  and  accustomed,  and  to  rise  into  com- 
munion with  thee.  May  we  have  that  blessed  vision,  and  the  joy  thereof, 
which  they  have  who  by  faith  discern  thee  and  the  heavenly  land.  May 
cares,  and  sorrows,  and  burdens,  and  doubts,  and  temptations,  all  flee  away, 
and  may  we  dwell  in  the  calm  and  sweet  light,  this  morning,  that  comes 
from  thy  countenance,  rejoicing  in  thee,  and  having  fellowship  one  ^ith 
another.  In  all  the  service  in  thy  house,  to-day,  and  in  the  service  of  the 
hours  at  home,  may  we  have  thine  inspiration,  and  thy  blessing,  and  thy 
favor.    We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

6. 


THE  FAITH  OF  LOVE. 


"Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Thomas,  because  thou  hast  seen  me  thou  hast 
believed:  blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed."— 
Jno.  XX.  <J9. 


We  shall  not  immediately  comment  upon  this  passage,  although 
it  is  the  axis  upon  which  the  thoughts  of  the  discourse  will  turn. 
We  shall  come  to  it  in  the  regular  sequence  of  the  history  of  the 
events  which  took  place  upon  the  morning  of  the  resurrection.  The 
whole  scene  which  followed  the  resurrection,  and  which  is  sketched 

in  the  Gospel,  is  one  not  simply  of  transcendent  beauty one  which 

indicates  great  dramatic  power,  without  a  parallel ;  but  it  is  one 
which,  the  more  it  be  studied,  the  more  familiar  we  become  with  it 
the  more  admirable  it  seems.  In  what  one  of  the  Greek  dramas 
in  what  one  of  Shakespeare's  dramas,  are  there  such  elements  ? 
Where,  in  dramatic  writings,  is  there  such  a  whirl  of  all  human 
passions  and  events,  as  those  that  shook  tumultuous  Jerusalem 
the  day  before,  and  during  the  trial  of  the  Saviour  ?  Such  a 
scene,  on  such  a  background  as  the  crucifixion,  and  such  a  scene 
following,  transcend,  inconceivably,  the  boldest  thing  that  ever  was 
dreamed  of.  The  attempt  to  represent  so  tremendous  a  period  as 
the  three  days  preceding  and  including  the  crucifixion  of  our 
Saviour,  and  his  resurrection,  is  without  an  equal.  There  have  been 
notions  floating  in  the  world  of  incarnations  ;  but  they  were  mostly 
monstrous  and  grotesque,  and  they  were  without  moral  aim  or  pur- 
port largely,  for  the  worst  of  reasons — passional,  degrading,  corrupt- 
ing. But  when  and  where  before  was  there  a  conception  of  the 
paternity  of  God  ?  When  and  where  before  was  there  a  conception 
of  God,  out  of  the  fullness  of  time,  at  last  dawning  through  the 
darkness  of  this  world  and  coming  into  it,  to  be  a  Brother,  and  a 
Friend,  and  a  Guide,  and  a  Saviour,  and  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
for  the  whole  race  ? 

That  is  the  phenomenon,  and  that  is  the  drama,  that  is  to  be 
enacted — how  such  a  being  should  live  ;  how  he  should  approach 
the   hour   of  death  ;    how   he   should   deport   himself  in  the   trial 

(Easter)  Sunday  Morning,  April  9, 1871.    Lesson  :  ISA.  LX.    Hymns  (Plymouth 
Collection):  Nos.  2S4,  255,  058. 


98  THE  FAITH  OF  LOYF. 

through  which  he  -went ;  how  he  should  come  forth  from  the 
sepulchre.  And  in  reading  this  sublime  drama  of  history,  one  is 
struck  with  the  unconscious  and  exquisite  skill  with  which  the 
terrible  scenes  of  which  it  is  made  up  are  relieved. 

It  was  a  canon  of  Greek  art,  never  to  represent  pain  and  horror 
with  such  prominence  as,  on  the  whole,  to  overcome  the  sense  of 
pleasure  produced  by  the  drama,  picture  or  sculpture.  It  is  a 
sound  rule  of  art.  And  although  the  recorders  of  these  scenes 
had  no  ideal  of  a  drama  before  their  mind,  and  were  recording 
simply  a  history,  if  they  had  Deen  instructed  m  Athens,  they  could 
not  more  skillfully  have  brought  in  the  points  of  light  and  relief  over 
against  what  otherwise  would  have  been  unredeemed  horror. 

Such  little  touches  as  those  which  were  given  after  the  Saviour 
had  gone  forth  upon  the  way — as,  for  instance,  the  outburst  and 
tender  greeting  of  the  women — not  only  threw  a  light  on  his  feelings, 
but  also  relieved  our  feelings,  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
wrought  to  too  great  a  tension.  When  he  is  crucified,  no  details  are 
given.  The  most  shocking  details  of  the  crucifixion  have  been  given 
in  history,  and  have  been  given  in  sermons  ;  but  the  insj)ired  pen- 
men merely  speak  of  the  events,  and  go  into  no  particulars.  There 
is  no  casting  of  him  down.  There  is  no  stretching  out  of  the  hands. 
There  is  no  piercing  of  the  feet  with  the  nails.  There  is  no  sound 
of  hammers.  There  are  none  of  these  circumstances  which  a  spurious 
history  has  doubtless  magnified.  The  record  says,  "  They  crucified 
liim" — that  is  all.  And  it  is  sublime  in  its  nakedness  and  simplicity, 
as  well  as  beautiful  in  the  exquisiteness  of  its  art. 

Connected  with  his  crucfixion,  there  has  always  been  a  relief  to 
me  in  the  self-possession  which  was  indicated.  They  put  a  sponge 
upon  a  reed,  with  vinegar,  mixed  with  myrrh.  That  is,  wine  and 
myrrh  were  mixed,  and  used  for  the  purpose  of  an  anaesthetic,  to 
deaden  sensibility.  It  was  something  that  was  given  as  we  give 
chloroform.  He  tasted  it,  but  would  not  take  it.  He  smiled  it 
away.  He  preferred  to  go  through  his  suiFerings  in  the  possession 
of  his  unobstructed  faculties.  That  calm  superiority  in  the  hour  of 
extreme  anguish,  always  diff'used  a  light  and  relief  over  my  mind. 

And  then,  there  was  the  scene  of  that  touching  conversation  be- 
tween the  Saviour  and  the  thief  Who  else  would  have  dreamed  of 
such  a  scene  as  that  ?  Who  would  have  dared  to  attempt  it  ?  Who 
that  attempted  it  could  ever  have  accomplished  it  ?  And  yet,  as  it 
stands,  it  is  full  of  relief,  and  full  of  beauty — of  beauty  where  you 
least  would  have  expected  it,  in  the  anguish  of  crucifixion. 

Then,  look  at  the  tender  farewell  which  he  addressed  to  his  moth- 
er.    Most  simple,  most  natural,  and  most  unostentatious,  was  it  j  and 


THE  FAITH  OF  LOVE.  99 

yet,  there  it  stands,  an  exquisite  flower,  blossoming  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross. 

Look,  also,  at  the  self-control,  the  love  and  the  divinity,  with 
which  he  breathed  a  prayer  of  sympathy  and  forgiveness  on  those 
that  were  murdering  him.  Nor  is  there  wanting  a  certain  relief  to 
the  tragic  nature  of  the  scene,  in  the  groups  that  surrounded  the 
cross.  On  the  one  side  was  the  group  of  women,  whose  courage  in 
that  hour  was  a  courage  of  love  and  sympathy,  which  rose  superior 
to  the  zeal  and  courage  of  manhood.  For  the  men  shrunk  away,  and 
held  themselves  at  a  safe  distance — with  one  exception :  that  of  the 
feminine  disciple,  John.  He  stood  faithful.  Over  against  the  women 
were  groups  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  gambling  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross.  They  had  done  their  work,  and  while  waiting  they  were 
dividing  the  Saviour's  garments.  They  threw  dice  to  see  who  should 
have  the  whole  one ;  and  the  others  they  separated.  And  it  is  said 
that  they  sat  down  and  watched  him.  Here  were  these  contrasting 
groups — the  women  on  the  one  side,  and  the  hoary  gamblers  on  the 
other,  the  one  watching  with  tender  eyes  of  love,  and  the  other  with 
hard  eyes  of  cruelty. 

And  so,  while  the  central  Figure  is  never  lost,  while  we  never  for 
one  moment  waver  in  our  interest  in  him,  all  these  unconscious  and 
unintended  touches  relieve  the  stress  of  feeling ;  and  we  read  again, 
and  again,  and  again,  and  never  are  tired  of  reading,  this  matchless 
scene  of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ. 

I  suppose  the  finer  our  natures  become,  and  the  more  delicate 
are  the  rules  of  criticism  which  we  bring  to  bear  upon  this  history 
of  the  Jast  hours  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  the  better  it  will  stand 
the  test  of  criticism,  and  the  more  surely  it  will  come  out  evidently 
inspired. 

Where  else,  in  any  drama,  is  there  an  attempt  to  depict  a  God 
coming  from  the  grave  as  a  human  suggestion  ?  It  is  simply  auda- 
cious. Yet,  if  you  will  look  at  this,  you  will,  I  think,  be  struck  with 
the  skill  (not  purposed  skill),  with  the  rare  art,  in  the  best  and  high- 
est use  of  that  term,  that  is  manifested  in  the  conduct  of  this  part  of 
the  history.  It  is  not  a  slight  circumstance,  in  my  judgment,  that 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  not  painted  at  all;  that  there  is  no  at-^ 
tempt  made  to  paint  it.  The  Saviour  is  presented  to  us  as  lying 
calm  as  marble.  Nor  is  there  a  description  of  the  first  stirrings  or 
ever  he  came  forth  at  the  angel-touch.  There  is  no  depicting  of  these 
things.  All  that  we  know  is  that  when  the  morning  dawned,  and 
they  went  into  the  sepulchre  to  find  him,  he  was  not  there. 

And  it  is  a  beautiful  transition  to  our  conception,  that  angels  are 
introduced  into  the  tomb.     The  management  of  spirits  has  always 


100  THE  FAITH  OF  LOVE. 

y  > 

"been  the  test  of  genius ;  but  where  can  you  find  such  management 
of  spirits  as  here  ?  Where  can  you  find  angelic  appearances  so  fit  ? 
Where  can  you  find  demeanor  so  admirable  ?  Where  can  you  find 
words  so  noble  ?  For,  while  angels  are  represented  as  singing  at 
the  advent  of  the  Saviour,  they  are  represented  as  sitting  silent  in 
the  sepulchre.  Two,  there  were ;  and  we  may  imagine  one  the  angel 
of  Hope,  and  the  other  the  angel  of  Memory ;  as  if  the  angel  at  the 
feet  were  tracing  the  history  of  Christ  as  "  a  man  of  sorrow  and 
acquainted  with  grief,"  while  the  angel  at  the  head  was  looking  for 
the  joy  that  was  before  him,  and  into  which  he  was  about  to  enter  ? 
Where  can  you  find  so  fit  an  appearance  of  angels  ?  There  is  no 
machinery  ;  there  is  no  ostentation  ;  there  is  no  undue  prominence 
given  to  this  feature  of  the  scene.  It  was  just  sketched  in  with  a 
single  stroke. 

And  then,  the  appearance  of  the  Saviour  is  not  represented  so 
much  by  describing  him,  as  by  describing  the  efiect  which  was  pro- 
duced upon  the  minds  of  those  who  were  cognizant  of  his  resurrec- 
tion. 

This  is  rare  art,  and  it  would  take  the  finest  skill  to  carry  it  out, 
were  it  left  to  skill.  We  shall  not  find,  in  all  this  history,  a  single 
mis-stroke.  The  most  stupenduous  thing  to  be  done,  is  done  freely, 
and  strongly,  and  perfectly ;  and  yet  it  is  done  without  a  mistake. 
Not  a  line  could  be  obliterated.  There  is  not  one  misadjustment.  It 
agrees  entirely  with  all  that  we  know.  The  more  critical  we  are, 
the  better.  All  we  know  of  human  nature  is  met,  and  we  are  more 
than  pleased — we  are  surprised — at  every  step. 

Take  the  picture,  for  instance,  of  serenity.  I  do  not  know  where 
I  get  that  feeling ;  but  as  I  read  this  connected  history,  it  seems  to 
me  as  though  the  crucifixion  was  like  one  of  those  summer  thunder- 
storms that  we  have,  in  which  all  the  heavens  appear  to  be  full  of 
darkness,  and  conflict,  and  turmoil.  The  terrible  thunder-cracks  that 
roll  through  the  darkness  ;  the  great  striving  winds  that  now  tug 
at  the  trees  which  groan  under  their  hands,  and  that  now  beat  on 
the  house  ;  the  hissing  rain ;  all  the  wild  commotion  of  the  elements 
— ^these  fill  the  soul  full  of  imaginations  and  strange  terrors.  And 
yet,  we  sleep  (I  used  to,  as  a  child),  and  wake,  and  sleep;  and  when 
the  morning  comes,  there  is  not  a  cloud  in  the  air.  It  is  as  if  the 
heavens  were  one  vast  bowl,  or  goblet,  filled  with  the  wine  of  life. 
And  the  sun  seems  steeping  the  very  heavens.  Not  a  leaf  moves 
except  when  a  drop  of  water  falls  from  it  and  changes  its  equipoise. 
And  all  the  birds  sing,  and  all  voices  seem  jubilant,  and  all  the 
earth  seems  refreshed  and  more  beautiful.  And  so  it  affects  me 
when  I  read  of  the  tumult  of  the  crucifixion  on  Calvary,  and  the 
after  quiet. 


TEE  FAITH  OF  LOVF.  101 

For  then,  there  are  the  scenes  of  the  garden — the  ministration 
of  angels ;  the  sweet  surprise  of  the  different  groups  that  came  to 
the  sepulchre.  It  is  all  tranquil.  It  is  all  joyful.  Previous  to  that 
event  there  had  been  tumult,  from  the  time  of  Christ's  appearance 
on  the  earth ;  but  when  once  he  has  passed  the  portals  of  the  tomb ; 
when  once  he  has  come  forth  from  the  sepulchre,  it  is  all  serene ;  it 
is  all  sweet.  It  is  as  it  should  be.  Now  we  can  see  it.  The  Saviour 
has  risen ;  and  all  the  signs  and  tokens  of  his  presence  are  gladness 
and  radiance  and  peace. 

There  is  an  utter  absence,  I  have  said,  of  any  stage  effect.  The 
impression  which  Jesus  makes  is  that  of  one  who  is  hovering  between 
this  life  and  the  life  to  come.  He  is  of  the  earth,  manifestly ;  he 
wears  a  body ;  he  has  the  appetites ;  he  eats,  he  drinks,  and  he 
walks ;  he  has  flesh  and  bones,  the  genuineness  of  which  he  ex- 
pressly told  his  disciples  to  ascertain  for  themselves  ;  and  yet  there 
is  an  air  of  distance  about  him.  He  is  not  as  familiar  to  us  as  before 
his  crucifixion.  He  seems  to  touch  nothing  with  that  same  human 
sense  of  feeling  that  he  once  did.  There  is  a  sort  of  sacredness 
about  him,  as  though  he  were  on  the  way  up  to  his  spiritual  con- 
dition. There  is  a  certain  ethereality  which  works  strangeness,  not 
expressed  by  any  formal  statement,  but  coming  upon  us  uncon- 
sciously from  the  artless  narrative. 

He  first  meets  the  group  of  women  who  are  on  their  way  to 
Jerusalem,  and  says,  "All  hail!"  Then  he  meets  Mary,  who  is 
bewildered  in  the  garden,  and  brings  her  to  a  consciousness  of  his 
presence.  Next,  he  overtakes  certain  disciples  walking  to  Emmaus, 
and  discourses  to  them  in  a  manner  that  seems  to  them  very  strange 
— weird,  even.  Afterward,  he  makes  himself  known  to  them  at  the 
breaking  of  bread  in  the  house,  and  then  disappears.  And  they, 
hurrying,  rush  back  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  gather  the  disciples  to- 
gether in  a  chamber  apart,  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  and  he  is  present 
with  them,  and  makes  himself  known  to  them. 

Then,  there  is  that  strange  scene  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  of 
Galilee,  where  he  calls  in  the  fishermen  that  have  returned  from 
their  toil,  and  Speaks  with  them.  There  is  also  the  mountain  scene, 
where  some  five  hundred  gather  together  and  believe  on  him — 
"  but  some  doubted." 

The  account  of  the  ascension  is  matchless  in  grandeur  and  sim- 
plicity ;  and  it  would  have  been  hazardous  for  Shakespeare  to  at- 
tempt to  depict  such  a  scene.     He  would  have  been  left  far  behind. 

Look  at  the  fact  of  the  sudden  appearance  of  Christ  to  his  dis- 
ciples after  his  crucifixion.  There  was  not  one  of  them  who  doubted 
that  he  had  been  slain.     About  that  there  was  no  question.     In 


102  THE  FAITH  OF  LOVE. 

general,  you  will  find  that  there  was  an  intense  bewilderment,  re- 
sulting from  alternating  emotions.  Yet,  there  was  no  extravagance 
in  the  conduct  of  any  of  them.  There  was  nothing  artificial  or 
strange  in  their  demeanor.  If  this  had  been  a  made-up  history,  what 
efibrts  would  men  have  made  to  depict  the  efiect  produced  upon  the 
diflerent  temperaments  and  the  difierent  constitutional  peculiarities 
of  these  disciples !  And  yet,  there  is  no  efibrt  of  this  kind.  There  is 
no  artificial  limning.  We  see  just  what  we  might  have  expected  to 
see,  and  what  we  ought  to  have  expected  to  see. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  historic  management  of  the  scene  in  the 
tomb.  I  have  alluded  to  the  meeting  of  the  disciples  with  the  angels. 
But  see  how,  at  the  meeting  of  the  disciples  with  the  Saviour,  the 
difierent  avenues  of  conviction  were  opened  in  them  severally.  That 
peculiar  experience  is  described  in  which  there  is  a  violent  strife,  and 
an  unbelief,  by  reason  of  the  alternations  of  joy  and  of  fear.  And 
this  is  graphically  set  forth  in  a  few  words : 

"  And  they  departed  quickly  from  the  sepulchre  [having  heard  what  the 
angels  said],  with  fear  and  great  joy;  [for  they  trembled  and  were  amazed. 
Neither  said  they  anything  to  any  man.  They  were  unconscious  of  anybody 
around  them,  so  intense  was  their  inward  feeling ;  for  they  were  afraid,]  and 
did  run  to  bring  his  disciples  word ;  and  as  they  went  to  tell  his  disciples, 
behold,  Jesus  met  them,  saying,  All  hail." 

And  in  the  instant  this  wild  excitement,  this  tumult  of  hope  and 
of  joy  and  of  fear,  culminated  in  conviction.  And  they  fell  down  on 
the  ground  before  him. 

"  They  came  and  held  him  by  the  feet,  and  worshiped  him." 
And  yet,  they  were  trembling  all  over,  full  of  awe ;  and  Jesus 
saw  it. 

"  Then  said  Jesus  unto  them.  Be  not  afraid:  go  tell  my  brethren  that 
they  go  into  Galilee,  and  there  shall  they  see  me." 

Then  see  what  a  beautiful  touch  there  is  of  human  nature,  and^ 
one  that  no  man  ever  would  have  thought  of  who  was  making  up 
this  history.     I  mean  that  little  characteristic  scene  between  John 

,  '  Peter.  They  heard,  you  know,  some  tidings  about  Christ's  dis- 
i>^  i>earance  from  the  sepulchre,  and  they  started  and  ran  to  the  gar- 
den. They  had  a  race ;  and  John  beat  Peter.  John  could  not  dis- 
guise his  joy :  he  had  to  put  it  in  his  own  narrative  that  he  beat 
Peter.  Now,  I  do  not  think  anybody  making  up  a  history  of  this 
event  would  have  put  in  that  circumstance.  And  yet,  I  am  glad  it  is 
in  this  narrative.     On  the  whole,  I  am  glad  that  John  beat  Peter. 

"  Peter  therefore  went  forth,  and  that  other  disciple  [as  John  always 
called  himself],  and  came  to  the  sepulchre.  So  they  ran  both  together  [neck 
and  neck,  for  awhile] ;  and  the  other  disciple  did  outrun  Peter,  and  came 
first  to  the  sepulchre.  And,  he  stooping  down,  and  looking  in,  saw  the  linen 
clothes  lying;  yet  went  he  not  in.  Then  cometh  Simon  Peter  following 
him,  and  went  into  the  sepulchre,  and  seeth  the  linen  clothes  lie,  and  the 


lEE  FAITH  OF  LOVE.  103 

napkin,  that  was  about  his  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen  clothes,  but 
wrapped  together  in  a  place  by  itself." 

I  never  could  imagine  why  there  should  have  been  all  that  par- 
ticularity of  telling  where  the  grave-clothes  lay.  I  never  could  make 
it  seem  that  there  was  any  object  in  it.  It  was  the  habit  of  men,  in 
telling  a  thing  which  they  had  seen,  to  tell  it  just  as  they  saw  it.  If 
they  were  making  up  a  history  of  the  event,  they  would  not,  per- 
haps, stop  to  put  in  all  these  little  circumstances ;  but  if  they  were 
describing  the  scene  as  they  saw  it,  they  would  put  them  in,  and  let 
folks  make  out  of  them  what  they  could. 

There  is  another  scene  in  connection  with  the  first  appearing  of 
Christ  after  his  resurrection,  where  there  is  a  remarkable  manifesta- 
tion of  grief  and  of  love,  which  seems  to  me  in  many  respects  the 
most  exquisite  scene  in  literature.  It  is  that  which  is  narrated  of 
Mary  in  the  garden.  There  is  the  unbelief  of  sorrow,  and  there  is 
the  believing  of  love : 

"  Now  when  Jesus  was  risen  early  the  first  day  of  the  week,  he  appeared 
first  to  Mary  Magdalen,"  "Mary  stood  without  at  the  sepulchre  weeping:  and 
as  she  wept,  she  stooped  down,  and  looked  into  the  sepulchre,  and  seeth  two 
angels  in  white  sitting,  the  one  at  the  head,  and  the  other  at  the  feet,  where 
the  body  of  Jesus  had  lain." 

Blessed  ai'e  they  who  weep,  and  who  in  their  grief  look  into  the 
sepulchre,  and  who  are  wise  and  inspired  to  see  angels,  even  iu  the 
tomb. 

"  And  they  say  unto  her.  Woman,  why  weepest  thou  ?  She  saith  unto 
them.  Because  they  have  taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they 
have  laid  him.  And  when  she  had  thus  said,  she  turned  herself  back,  and 
saw  Jesus  standing,  and  knew  not  that  it  was  Jesus.  Jesus  saith  to  her, 
Woman,  why  weepest  thou  ?  Whom  seekest  thou  ?  She,  supposing  him  to 
be  the  gardener,  saith  unto  him,  Sir,  if  thou  have  borne  him  hence,  tell  me 
where  thou  hast  laid  him,  and  1  will  take  him  away." 

Even  his  death  was  more  precious  to  her  than  the  life  of  any 
other  creature. 

'Jesus  [throwing  all  the  old-time  love  into  his  voice]  saith  unto  her, 
Mary.  She  turned  herself,  and  said  unto  him,  Rabboni ;  which  is  to  say, 
Master." 

She  did  not  see  his  hand,  nor  his  side ;  but  ah  !  that  tone — she 
had  heard  it  before,  and  it  struck  the  old  chord  of  love ;  and  no 
music  could  compare  with  that.  There  was  just  this  one  breathing 
of  her  name,  and  love  knew  him,  and  sprang  to  life  and  to  joy. 

There  is  another  scene,  where  we  see  the  conflict  of  fear.  It  is 
one  that  took  place  after  the  disciples  had  walked  with  the  Saviour 
to  Emmaus,  They  had  seen  him ;  and  they  went  back  to  Jerusalem 
and  revealed  their  experience  to  the  disciples  that  were  gathered 
together  there.  The  doors  were  shut  where  the  disciples  were  as- 
Bgimbled,  for  fear  of  the  Jews.     So  we  see  them  huddled  together  in 


104  TEH  FAITH  OF  LOYE. 

a  secret  place,  in  the  utmost  obscurity,  doubtless  wliispering  rather 
than  talking. 

"  And  as  they  sat  at  meat,  they  [these  disciples  from  Emmaus]  told  what 
things  were  done  in  the  way,  and  how  he  was  known  of  them  in  breaking 
of  bread.  And  as  they  thus  spake,  Jesus  himself  stood  in  the  midst  of  them, 
and  upbraided  them  with  their  unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,  because  they 
believed  not  them  which  had  seen  him  after  he  was  risen ;  and  he  saith  unto 
them,  Peace  be  unto  you.  But  they  were  terrified  and  affrighted,  and  sup- 
posed that  they  had  seen  a  spirit.  And  he  said  unto  them.  Why  are  ye 
troubled  ?  and  why  do  thoughts  arise  in  yottr  hearts  ?  Behold  my  hands 
and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself :  handle  me,  and  see ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not 
flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have." 

He  comforts  them,  just  as  a  mother  comforts  an  affrighted  child, 
soothing  its  fear,  and  bringing  it  to  the  object  which  it  dreads,  and 
making  it  look  at  it  and  handle  it. 

"  Then  were  the  disciples  glad,  when  they  saw  the  Lord." 

Of  course  they  were.  What  simplicity  to  put  that  in !  and  yet, 
how  beautiful  it  is,  being  put  in  ! 

"  And  while  they  yet  believed  not  for  joy,  and  wondered,  he  said  unto 
them.  Have  ye  here  any  meat  ?" 

First,  they  would  not  believe  from  fear ;  and  yet  they  did  believe. 
They  believed,  and  yet  they  could  not  believe,  because  it  was  so 
joyful. 

Have  you  never  had  this  experience  yourself?  Have  you  never 
said,  "  This  is  too  good  to  be  true"  ?  Have  you  never  been  so  happy 
that  you  pinched  yourself  to  see  whether  you  were  not  asleep  ?  Have 
you  never  wished  to  test  the  reality  of  what  you  believed  ? 

How  continually  has  it  struck  me,  and  how  it  strikes  me  yet, 
what  simplicity  of  instruments  and  means  there  is  in  this  narrative, 
and  how  little  expenditure  there  is  of  machinery  !  Indeed,  there  is 
no  machinery  in  it.  It  is  desultory,  almost.  It  certainly  is  un- 
studied and  unconscious. 

There  is  one  more  instance  which  is  of  interest  in  connection  with 
this  event — that  which  relates  to  Thomas,  with  a  portion  of  whose 
history  I  opened  this  discourse.  After  this  scene  of  the  disciples  in 
the  secret  room  in  Jerusalem,  where  it  is  said  that  Thomas  was  not 
present,  other  disciples  said  unto  him,  **  We  have  seen  the  Lord."  No 
man  can  tell  the  exultation  which  must  have  gone  with  the  utterance 
of  that  simple  declaration,  "  We  have  seen  the  Lord." 

Now,  Thomas  was  a  man  of  reason ;  he  was  a  philosopher.  He 
had  no  objection  whatever  to  believing  ;  but  he  wanted  proof;  and 
he  wanted  the  proof  to  be  of  a  particular  kind.  And  when  all  the 
disciples  were  aglow,  he  was  unmoved.  He  knew  them ;  he  knew 
their  nature ;  he  knew  their  veracity ;  he  could  not  but  have  known 
that  their  testimony  was  sufficient,  at  least,  to  ci-eate  a  joyful  pre- 
sumption. But  with  a  sort  of  conceit  and  loftiness,  as  much  as  to 
Bay,  "  They  may  be  imposed  upon,  but  I  cannot  be,"  he  said, 


THE  FAITH  OF  LOYE.  105 

j 

"  Except  I  shall  see  in  his  hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my  finger 
into  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my  hand  into  his  side,  I  will  not  be- 
lieve." 

It  is  as  if  be  liad  said,  "  I  must  be  present  wben  I  am  convinced ; 
and  it  must  be  according  to  my  mind  and  my  nature,  and  not  by 
sympathy,  that  the  evidence  shall  come." 

"  And  after  eight  days  again  his  disciples  were  within,  and  Thomas  with 
them :  then  came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and 
said.  Peace  be  unto  you." 

How  singularly  full  of  peace  Christ  was,  both  in  the  last  hours 
preceding  his  crucifixion,  and  afterward,  every  time  that  he  met  his 
disciples  ! 

"  Then  saith  he  to  Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  behold  my  hands ; 
and  reach  hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side ;  and  be  not  faithless, 
but  believing." 

"  It  was  too  much  for  poor  Thomas.    He  cried  out, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God  !" 

Well,  Thomas  was  a  good  fellow,  after  all.  He  did  not  mean 
any  harm.  He  had  a  heart  in  him.  He  only  had  a  touch  of  vanity. 
He  was  not  going  to  believe  because  others  did.  Jesus  came  to  him 
with  that  sweetness,  and  tenderness,  and  beautifulness :  and  the 
moment  he  saw  Jesus,  he  could  not  resist  another  instant,  and  he 
cried  out, 

"  My  Lord  and  my  God." 

Thank  Thomas  for  that. 

"Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Thomas,  because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou  hast  be- 
lieved :  blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen  me,  and  yet  have  believed." 

This  is  not  a  rebuke  of  the  desire  to  have  physical  evidence  of 
physical  facts,  at  all ;  nor  is  it  a  rebuke  of  Thomas  for  desiring  to 
identify  the  Saviour  past  all  mistake ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  there 
was  an  inward  feeling  which  inspired  that  rebuke  of  Christ.  It  is 
as  if  he  had  said,  "  After  living  so  many  years  with  me  ;  after  ex- 
periencing the  intimacy  and  the  enduring  love  that  you  have  ;  after 
knowing  all  that  you  have  known,  was  there  nothing  in  your  hope, 
was  there  nothing  in  your  love,  was  there  nothing  in  the  probabili- 
ties of  the  history  of  my  bearing  toward  the  other  disciples,  was  there 
nothing  in  you  that  was  touched  by  their  testimony?"  It  was  a 
reproach  to  the  love  of  Thomas.  Christ  as  much  as  said,  "  If  ye  had 
loved  me,  Thomas,  as  I  have  loved  you,  you  would  have  needed  no 
other  evidence.  The  intuition  of  love  would  have  made  you  sure, 
when  you  heard  one  and  another  and  another  bear  testimony  that 
I,  your  Lord  and  Master,  had  risen." 

The  scene,  looked  at  in  this  light,  is  inexpressibly  beautiful  to 
me.  I  am  touched  by  this  appeal  of  the  Saviour  for  belief  to  the 
deepest  part  of  our  nature,  and  not  to  the  eyes  nor  the  hands. 
Though  these  are  proper  instruments  to  be  employed  in  ascertain- 


106  THE  FAITR  OF  LOVE. 

ing  the  truth,  yet,  as  between  friends,  the  heart  ought  to  interpret. 
As  between  friends,  testimony  ought  to  be  received,  and  cold  proofs 
of  a  physical  nature  ought  not  to  be  insisted  upon. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  go  into  all  the  details  of  this  matchless 
part  of  the  history,  covering  the  first  few  days  after  the  resurrection 
of  Christ ;  but  I  ask  you  whether,  if  you  look  at  it  closely,  you  can 
conceive  of  anything  more  transcendent  ?  Can  you  conceive  of  the 
revelation  of  a  risen  Christ  to  his  disciples,  under  circumstances 
more  fit,  and  in  ways  that  would  touch  more  perfectly  your  sense  of 
poetry,  your  sense  of  afiection,  your  sense  of  dignity,  or  your  sense 
of  fidelity  to  duty  ?  Is  it  not  rare  in  limning,  and  exquisite  in  color- 
ing; and  chiefly,  is  it  not  striking  for  simplicity  ?  And  how  much  of 
effect  is  brought  out  with  how  little  efibrt !  For,  one  might  read 
over  all  this  history  of  the  few  days  after  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
in  certain  moods,  and  be  little  afliected  by  it ;  one  might  go  through 
the  whole  of  it,  in  an  external  state,  and  not  have  a  single  point 
sti-ike  him ;  but  the  moment  that  a  man  comes  into  a  state  of  real 
susceptibility,  the  moment  that  his  higher  feelings  are  developed,  it 
is  full  of  meaning,  and  its  contents  are  not  less  than  marvelous  to 
him. 

Well,  then,  is  this  a  fictitious  history  ?  Is  it  a  myth  ?  One  of 
the  recent  theories  by  which  the  authenticity  of  the  Gospels  is  sought 
to  be  done  away  with,  is  that  there  were  certain  occurrences,  that 
these  occurrences  were  magnified  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  that  they 
were  recorded  thus  magnified,  and  that  they  were  handed  down  to  a 
later  period  as  real  facts  of  history ;  whereas,  they  were  only  a  bun- 
dle of  myths.  But  where  before  was  there  ever  a  mythical  history 
that  so  far  outran  the  best  things  which  philosophy  or  art  could  do  ? 
Where  before  was  there  ever  a  history  born,  as  it  is  said,  by  the 
brooding  of  superstition  or  ignorance  among  the  common  people, 
which  was  able  to  unfold  such  a  transcendent  vision  of  the  Divine 
Being,  under  circumstances  so  critical,  and  where,  to  follow  nature, 
would  so  mark  the  highest  efibrts  of  genius,  if  it  were  the  work  of 
genius  alone  ? 

But  if  this  be  simply  the  recital  of  facts,  then  what  must  those 
facts  have  been  ?  If  the  narrative,  in  its  almost  ragged  artlessness, 
with  the  various  elements  thrown  together  without  any  attempt  to 
produce  a  scenic  or  tragic  eflfect  is  so  transcendently  beautiful,  what 
must  the  scenes  themselves  have  been !  And  what  an  unanswerable 
argument  is  here,  to  those  that  can  appreciate  it,  of  the  authenticity 
of  this  part  of  the  history  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour ! 

Now,  for  ourselves,  there  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  historical  ar- 
gument for  Christ,  which  is  good,  and  to  be  studied.     It  is  neither 


THE  FAITR  OF  LOVE,  107 

to  te  undervalued  nor  to  be  made  too  much  of.  It  is  the  appeal  of 
exterior  facts  to  the  interior  reason.  It  is  the  sam^  argument  with 
which  we  ply  the  documents  that  remain  of  the  history  of  Rome,  or 
of  the  history  of  Greece,  or  of  the  history  of  the  Oriental  Empire. 
All  the  Gospels  submit  themselves  to  the  same  historic  tests.  Nor 
ought  Ave  to  fear.  For  there  is  that  in  these  narratives  which  will 
defy  destruction.  So  much  that  is  beautiful,  so  much  that  yet  trans- 
cends our  power  to  conceive  by  the  imagination,  so  much  that  is  in 
the  highest  degree  superhuman,  is  there,  that  it  is  incredible,  utterly, 
that  it  should  not  have  happened.  Historic  tests  and  processes 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  may  for  a  time 
cloud  it,  may  for  a  time  disturb  the  regularity  of  men's  belief  in  it, 
but  in  the  end  they  cannot  but  confirm  this  history  of  a  supernatural 
event.  : 

I  would  not,  then,  undervalue  your  reading  of  historical  argu- 
ments for  proof  of  the  reality  of  Christ's  life,  and  of  the  events  con- 
nected with  it,  and  recorded  of  it  ;  but  there  is  to  be  found  here 
evidence  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  without  this  external  historical 
argument.  There  is  that  to  which  the  Saviour  himself  alludes,  in 
his  appeal  to  Thomas,  to  whom  he  said,  as  it  were,  "  You  believe  be- 
cause you  have  seen  me.  You  have  had  sensuous  evidence  [the 
equivalent  of  historical  evidence] ;  you  have  believed  according  to 
ordinary  rules  of  belief,  by  which  men  judge  of  lower  truths — 
truths  of  fact,  and  truths  of  science.  Blessed  are  they  that  believe, 
not  having  seen.  Blessed  are  they  that  have  had  such  a  recognition 
of  the  divine  element,  that  they  believed,  not  simply  by  physical  or 
historical  proof,  but  by  their  own  moral  intuition  and  inward  per- 
ception." The  evidence  which  rises  above  all  others,  is  that  of  per- 
sonal experience.  The  highest  faculties  are  concerned  in  it — and  in 
their  holiest  hours.  It  is  the  testimony  of  our  very  best  manhood 
in  its  ripest  conditions.  Not  when  we  are  turmoiled  in  the  world, 
not  when  pride  is  striving,  not  when  our  lower  nature  is  in  the 
ascendancy,  do  we  ever  show  sensibility  to  evidence  in  respect  to 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  It  is  impossible,  in  a  war  of  words,  in  a  con- 
flict of  arguments,  in  the  jealousies  and  hatreds  which  come  up  be- 
tween men,  to  reach  the  highest  evidence  of  Christ's  divinity.  But 
when  once  life  has,  as  it  were,  not  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  but  for  fear 
of  evil,  shrunk  back  into  a  room  by  itself ;  when  we  are  gathered, 
as  the  disciples  were,  where  Christ  is  accustomed  to  meet  us — then 
it  IS  that  he  comes  and  says  personally  to  us,  "  Peace  be  unto 
you."  It  is  in  those  hours  when  we  have  the  advantage  of  our 
best  nature  in  the  best  circumstances,  that  Christ  manifests  himself 
to  us.     That  is  the  time  when  the  best  part  of  our  nature  rises  up, 


108  TEE  FAITH  OF  LOVE. 

and  pleads  that  it  may  be  true  that  Christ  is  a  reality,  and  that  all 
the  aspirations  and  yearnings  of  the  soul,  and  all  its  joys  in  antici- 
pation, may  not  be  as  a  baseless  vision. 

This  is  a  true  evidence.  Though  it  is  as  possible  to  pervert  it  as 
any  other  evidence ;  though  a  heated  imagination  may  suppose  itself 
to  know  in  whom  it  has  trusted,  and  be  mistaken ;  yet  all  things  of 
this  kind  do  not  work  any  diminution  in  the  force  of  the  reality. 
Where  one  is  in  the  upper  moods,  in  the  deepest  moods,  in  the  best 
moods  ;  where  the  soul  is  most  aroused  in  its  noblest  parts  ;  where 
Christ  appears  to  us,  and  says  individually  to  us,  "  Peace  be  unto 
you ;"  or  where  he  speaks  other  words  of  love,  and  all  things  re- 
spond to  the  divine  touch — there  is  evidence  which  no  man  can 
gainsay,  who  wishes  to  know  himself.  It  may  not  be  evidence  to  you 
that  another  believes  it,  but  that  should  be  the  best  evidence  to 
you  which  you  have  in  yourself. 

The  highest  evidence  of  Christ  and  his  divinity  can  only  be 
given  to  one  person  at  a  time.  It  is  gathered  out  of  each  per- 
son's own  heart-life  and  heart-experience.  I  think  I  may  say  fear- 
lessly and  joyfully  that  hundreds  and  thousands — hundreds  within 
the  scope  of  your  knowledge — have  lived  with  this  inward  testi- 
mony of  a  risen  Christ  in  their  own  moral  experience,  and  have  lived 
above  the  world,  you  being  witnesses.  You  know  that  that  noble 
woman,  your  mother,  lived  by  the  sight  of  something  which  you 
did  not  see.  There  was  a  vision  to  her.  You  remember  it.  What 
strange  serenity  she  manifested  in  darkness  and  trouble !  What 
wondrous  sweetness  of  patience  she  exhibited  under  untold  exaspera- 
tions !  What  singular  fidelity  was  shown  by  her  when  all  motives 
to  fidelity  seemed  gone,  and  every  motive  to  the  reverse  conduct 
seemed  regent !  You  remember  that  mother,  that  wife,  that  sister, 
who  seem  hanging  in  your  memory  almost  like  sainted  spirits,  who 
did  not  touch  the  earth  so  much  as  to  soil  the  foot.  You  believe 
that  their  life  was  hid  in  Christ,  and  that  they  lived  by  a  faith  that 
worked  by  love.  And  would  you  dispossess  yourself  of  that  belief 
if  you  could  ?  Would  you  take  out  from  yourself  the  recollection 
that  those  who  are  dearest  to  you  believed  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
as  their  very  God,  and  lived  and  died  in  the  sti'ength  of  that  faith  ? 
Would  you  wipe  out  that  fact  if  you  could  ? 

Have  you  not  seen  persons  that  were  not  nearly  connected  with 
you  ;  persons  that  were  in  poverty  ;  persons  that  were  in  sickness  ; 
persons  that  were  in  all  manner  of  misfortunes  ;  persons  that  were 
in  obscurity  ;  persons  that  were  eminent  in  suffering  ;  persons  that 
walked  in  the  world  almost  without  any  of  its  fruitions  and  fruits — 
have  you  not  seen  such  persons  who  yet  walked  victoriously  and 


TEE  FAITH  OF  LOYE,  109 

songfully  ?  The  wretches  and  the  outcasts  are  often  happier  than 
the  most  favored  sons  of  fortune.  It  is  the  harp,  or  the  viol,  or  the 
lute,  that  makes  music  in  mansions  of  pleasure  and  saloons  of  wealth ; 
but,  after  all,  there  is  no  such  wondrous  spiritual  joy  as  you  find  in 
the  hut  and  the  hovel ;  and  the  dying  pauper  in  the  poorhouse  may 
have  more  music  in  his  soul  than  the  richest  son  of  pleasure  has  ever 
known  in  the  resplendent  mansions  of  his  wealth. 

Such  arguments  are  but  poor  in  statement,  I  know ;  but  they  are 
great  in  experience.  I  do  not  believe  a  sensitive,  yearning  moral 
nature  can  stand  in  the  presence  of  one  who  knows  in  whom  he  has 
trusted,  and  who  is  full  of  this  unconquered  and  unconquerable  faith 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  be  himself  infected  with  a  holy 
sympathy  with  that  same  faith  and  that  same  belief. 

Why  should  men  want  to  cast  away  this  belief  ?  Do  men  desire 
to  cast  oif  their  raiment  in  winter,  when  ugly  storms  howl  and  rage  ? 
Do  men  wish  to  break  down  the  door  of  the  protecting  house  and 
let  all  the  severity  of  the  weather  in  ?  When  hunger  gnaws,  do 
men,  on  a  voyage,  desire  to  hurl  into  the  sea  the  food  that  attracts 
their  appetite  ?  When  men  are  suffering  the  pangs  of  sickness,  and 
all  the  throes  of  fever  are  upon  them,  do  they  desire  to  press  away 
the  physician's  hand  that  bears  the  relieving  medicine  ?  Men  covet 
these  things.  And  what,  in  the  round  earth,  is  there  that  a  man 
needs  which  Jesus  has  not  offered  in  himself,'  who  comes  to  us,  not 
to  condemn  but  to  save,  not  to  judge  us  but  to  love  us  into  purity; 
who  comes  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost ;  who  speaks  with  matchless 
wisdom  to  those  that  will  listen  to  his  voice  ;  who  walks  with  all  the 
grandeur  of  a  God  ;  who,  with  all  the  tenderness  of  a  mother's  love, 
goes  through  the  scenes  of  earthly  suffering ;  who,  more  and  more 
marvelous  to  the  very  good,  dawns  again  from  the  grave,  brighter 
than  a  morning  star,  and  sheds  the  beams  of  peace  around  about 
him ;  who  fills  all  his  disciples  with  overpowering  joy  ;  and  who 
goes  among  men  blessing  those  that  believe  in  him  though  they  have 
not  seen  him,  relieving  sickness,  redeeming  men  from  the  power  of 
misfortune,  lifting  them  above  temptation,  crowning  them  with  a 
holy  courage,  helping  them  to  live  lives  of  faith,  and  enabling 
them  in  their  last  hours  to  rejoice,  the  heart  singing  while  the  body 
perishes — the  inward  man  being  renewed  while  the  outward  man  is 
decaying  ? 

Who  does  not  desire  such  a  faith,  such  a  holy  strength,  such 
nourishment  of  all  that  is  best  in  him  ?  Let  them  seek  to  hew  down 
this  shadowy  truth  of  life  who  will ;  as  for  me,  I  stand  under  the 
branches  of  that  holy  hope  of  the  Son  of  God,  my  Lord  and  my 
Saviour.     If  this  be  idolatry,  I  will  face  the  universe  with  my  Idol, 


110  THE  FAITH  OF  LOVE, 

and  will  perish,  if  need  be,  in  the  proclamation  of  my  confidence  in 

Jesus  Christ,  the  Joy  and  Strength  of  life. 

"  Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  thee?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I 
desire  besides  thee." 

Do  not  be  afraid,  then,  to  trust  utterly ;  and  if  you  waver,  if 
you  permit  your  heart  to  be  discouraged  and  despondent,  if  you 
fall  down  low,  and  lower,  to  mere  physical  evidence,  if  you  abandon 
this  testimony  of  the  Spirit  of  God  striving  with  your  spirit,  this 
moral  sensibility  to  Jesus  Christ,  remember  that  your  Master,  yet 
one  day,  may  say  to  you  as  he  said  to  Thomas, 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed." 

On  this  very  joyful  day — a  day  that  I  love  because  it  is  joyful — 
let  us  fill  our  houses  full  of  gladness.  Let  us  to-day  speak  to  our 
children  of  the  beauty  of  Christ  and  the  joyfulness  of  Christ.  Let 
us  banish  every  ray  of  darkness.  Let  us  keep  out  every  alternative 
thought.  Let  us  look  up.  We  are  the  children  of  light,  on  this 
blessed  day.  Our  Lord  is  risen ;  he  has  ascended ;  he  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  us.  Let  us  keep  that  bright  side,  that  blos- 
soming beauty  and  glory  of  Christ,  filling  our  own  hearts  and  our 
own  habitations,  to-day,  full  of  gladness ;  may  we  say  one  to  an- 
other, "  Our  Lord  is  risen."  And  may  it  be  in  our  own  hearts  that 
he  shall  have  risen — risen  never  again  to  go  down,  but  to  give  us 
light  in  life,  in  death,  and  in  immortality. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Grant  unto  us,  this  morning,  our  heavenly  Father,  that  invitation  of  the 
Spirit,  that  welcome,  by  which  we  shall  know  that  we  are  remembered.  We 
cannot  bridge  the  distance  between  us  and  thee,  ourselves.  Nor  have  we 
strength  to  fly  through  all  the  space.  We  cannot  lift  ourselves  into  the  con- 
ception of  thy  glory,  nor  of  the  estate  of  the  blessed.  Condescend  unto  us, 
thou  that  dost  seek  and  save  the  lost.  Come  to  us,  and  bring  us  the  sug- 
gestion of  thy  life,  of  thy  love,  of  thine  holy  habitation,  and  of  the  rest 
which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  Illumine  our  hearts,  to-day,  that 
we  may  not  be  discouraged  in  our  pilgrimage ;  that  wo  may  not  count  the 
truth,  by  which  we  have  thus  far  been  sustained,  as  a  cunningly  devised 
fable-  that  it  may  not  elude  our  thought,  nor  escape  the  grasp  of  our  nature 
day  by  day.  For  we  need  to  have  a  perpetual  resurrection  in  ourselves  of 
faith  and  hope  and  love.  And  we  rejoice  to  come  to  thee  this  morning— the 
morning  that  brings  to  us,  tenderly  and  afresh,  the  concourse  of  thoughts 
and  prayers  and  joys  of  all  thy  people  throughout  the  earth.  We  desire  to 
come  to  thee  this  morning,  when  before  our  minds  rises  clearly  the  thought 
of  thy  triumph,  of  thy  blessed  resurrection,  of  thy  supreme  and  serene  joy, 
and  of  the  bewildering  fear  and  gladness  and  struggle  of  all  thy  disciples, 
who  lost  thee,  and  found  thee,  and  knew  it  not.  We  desire  to  come  to  thee 
this  morning,  O,  our  ascended  Saviour  I    Thou  that  hast  said  that  thy  Father 


TEE  FAITR  OF  LOVE.  HI 

was  Our  Father,  and  that  thy  God  was  our  God ;  thou  that  hast  bound  us  unto 
thee  by  the  ties  of  love  and  promise;  thou  that  hast  witnessed  to  us  a  thous- 
and times,  in  thought  and  in  feeling ;  thou  that  hast  twined  thyself  around 
about  the  experiences,  most  sacred,  of  our  inward  life;  thou  that  hast  sus- 
tained us  in  outward  conflict  and  in  trouble ;  thou  that  hast  helped  us  to  seek 
our  household,  as  we  do  our  joy,  with  the  heavenly  light ;  thou  that  hast  sent 
us  stars  to  shine  in  the  hours  of  our  darkness ;  thou  that  hast  taught  us  to 
love,  and  all  the  meaning  of  loving,  and  its  everlasting  course— we  draw  near 
to  thee  to  rejoice,  and  offer  thanksgiving ;  to  make  known  all  our  gladness, 
not  in  words  (for  no  language  can  speak  that  which  our  hearts  can  experi- 
ence) but  by  laying  our  souls  open  to  thy  sight.  We  draw  near  to  thee,  this 
morning,  as  our  Brotht  r,  our  Exemplar,  our  Friend  above  all  friends,  our- 
Leader,  our  Forerunner,  our  Mediator,  our  Saviour,  our  God.  And  we 
give  to  thee  all  that  we  can  give  to  any.  When  we  have  cast  before  thee 
our  thought  of  reverence,  and  of  worship,  and  of  fidelity,  and  our  innermost 

affection,  there  is  nothing  left— nothing  stronger,  nor  purer,  nor  higher 

that  we  can  offer  to  any  other  one.  It  is  to  thee,  and  yet  to  the  Father.  It 
is  to  thee,  and  yet  to  the  Spirit.  We  do  not  understand  the  mystery  of  the 
God-head.  We  know  that  when  our  hearts  are  lifted  up  to  worship  thee, 
there  is  no  jealousy  between  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  and  that  all 
the  little  we  can  do,  is  accepted  with  infinite  grace.  For  as  a  father  pitieth 
his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him.  And  thou  dost  pity  our 
ignorance,  and  our  want  of  scope  in  understanding.  Though  we  are 
entangled  in  many  thoughts,  and  find  the  places  that  are  void  and  that  are 
dark  to  be  vast  in  comparison  with  the  points  of  light  in  true  knowledge, 
we  know  enough  to  love ;  aud  there  is  everlasting  ground.  We  love  thee 
O  Lord  Jesus  Christ-  as  thou  hast  taught  us  to  love.  We  are  as  branches  of 
the  vine.  We  take  ffom  thee  our  nutriment.  We  bring  forth  fruit  by  rea- 
son of  that  which  thou  dost  give  unto  us.  We  are  saved  by  thee,  and  yet  by 
ourselves  also.  For  thou  dost  work  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  thy  good 
pleasure. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant,  this  morn- 
ing, that  every  one  in  thy  presence  may  have  fresh  occasion  to  bless  thee. 
We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  every  one,  this  morning,  may  be  able  to 
consecrate  himself  afresh  in  love  to  Him  that  loved  him  even  unto  death, 
and  has  now  risen,  and  is  on  high  a  pleading  Saviour.  Grant,  we  pray  thee, 
that  every  one  this  morning  may  be  able  to  overcome  fear  and  easily  beset- 
ting sin,  and  to  lay  aside  every  weight,  and  renounce  every  form  of  sin 
whatsoever,  and  to  draw  near  with  humble  boldness  unto  thee,  to  receive 
thy  blessing,  and  to  rejoice  in  thee. 

And  may  we  again,  this  morning,  begin  with  fresh  zeal,  with  a  new  and 
holier  hope,  with  more  radiant  aspiration,  and  with  a  purer  faith,  to  serve 
thee.  We  commend  ourselves  to  thee,  thou  All-seeing  Love,  by  reason  of 
our  weakness.  Thou  knowest  it  altogether.  Better  than  we  know,  thou 
knowest  all  these  things,  and  all  other  things  that  relate  to  our  welfare. 
And  we  commend  ourselves  to  thee  by  reason  of  our  infirmities.  Thou 
knowest  them.  And  we  commend  ourselves  to  thee  by  reason  of  our  sins. 
Thou  knowest  transgression.  Thou  dost  perfectly  understand  where  weak- 
ness ends,  and  where  transgression  begins.  Thou  seest  what  things  have 
been  treasured  up,  and  what  sin  upon  sin  has  been  committed.  We  do  not 
attempt  to  hide  ourselves.  It  is  in  the  searching  of  thine  eye  that  we  have 
help.  We  cannot  live  except  under  thy  forgiveness,  and  in  thy  great  grace. 
And  we  plead,  this  morning,  not  what  thou  hast  done,  but  what  thou  art. 
We  plead,  not  thy  history  upon  earth,  but  thy  heart  in  heaven.  We  plead, 
not  thine  atoning  work,  but  the  love  which  led  thee  to  atone,  which  ever 
lives,  and  which  is  a  living  power.  We  plead  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself. 


112  THE  FAITE  OF  LO  YE. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  it  may  not  be  in  our  own  strength,  for  one! 
single  moment,  that  we  shall  fancy  that  we  stand,  but  altogether  in  the  love  j 
and  tenderness,  in  the  pity  and  fidelity,  in  the  great  grace,  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Saviour.  And  who  shall  harm  us  if  we  stand  thus  encircled  by 
thine  arm.  Who  need  fear  to  live,  who  need  fear  to  die,  who  need  fear  to 
appear  before  the  judgment  seat,  that  has  thy  protection?  If  we  are  in  thee, 
what  can  harm  us  ?  Nothing  can  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  quicken  those  that  love  thee,  to  love  more. 
Comfort  those  who  are  beginning  to  experience  affection.  Though  it  be 
little,  may  it  be  as  the  morning  star.  And  we  pray  that  they  may  have, 
day  by  day,  renewed  and  increasing  experience  of  the  goodness  of  Christ  to 
them.  ! 

If  there  are  those,  this  morning,  who  feel  that  they  have  fallen  back  and 
enwrapped  themselves  with  carnal  and  secular  influences,  and  who  desire, 
to-day,  to  cast  off  all  earthly  incumbrances,  and  renew  their  consecration, 
oh !  as  they  stretch  out  their  hands  in  desire  and  prayer,  hear  thou  them, 
and  bring  them  in  with  great  grace  and  lenity,  very  near  to  thyself.  And 
may  they  hear  thee  call  them  by  name.  And  may  they  honor  thee.  And 
may  they  rejoice  in  thee  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  lead  to  a  knowledge  of  Christ  those  who  are 
without  God  and  without  hope  in  the  world.  Why,  at  this  blessed  time, 
irradiated  with  so  much  hope  and  joy,  should  any  be  without  their  portion? 

Oh!  deliver  those  that  are  bound,  and  those  that  are  ensnared,  and  those 
that  are  out  of  the  way,  and  bring  them  again  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop 
of  their  souls.  And  unite  us  together,  not  outwardly,  but  in  the  inward  and 
spiritual  communion  which  thou  dost  grant  unto  thy  children.  Encouraged 
by  the  same  hope,  actuated  by  the  same  purposes,  tried  by  the  same  tempta- 
tions, falling  imder  the  dominion  of  the  same  sins,  and  redeemed  from  their 
thrall  by  the  same  precious  love  and  faithfulness,  may  we  all  walk  together 
in  unity,  more  and  more  united  by  charity,  as  we  draw  near  io  the  golden 
gate.  And  by  and  by,  when  we  shall,  one  by  one,  step  out  from  this  earthly 
life,  may  we  hear  the  sounds  of  heaven  ;  and  may  they  be  as  music  to  us ; 
and  may  all  our  darkness  disappear ;  and  may  the  light  that  shall  know  no 
dimness,  dawn  upon  us,  and  extend  from  horizon  to  horizon. 

And  in  thy  presence,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  those  whom  we  have  lost, 
but  shall  be  found  again ;  with  the  general  assembly,  and  with  the  Church 
of  the  first-born ;  with  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect— in  this  company  of 
the  redeemed,  ourselves  redeemed,  we  will  give  the  praise  of  our  salvation 
to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  evermore.    Amen. 


VI, 

Special  Divine  Providence. 


Thou  that  givest  life  to  all,  grant  unto  us  that  inward  life  by  which  we 
shall  rise  up  to  a  knowledge  of  thee.  Break  the  power  of  our  senses.  Sub- 
due that  which  is  low  in  us.  Lift  us  up  into  communion  of  spirit  with  thee. 
May  hope  and  love  by  faith  work  in  us,  this  day.  And  may  we  rejoice  in 
the  outshiuing  of  that  light  which  mortal  eye  cannot  see,  and  which  belongs 
to  us  as  the  children  of  light.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  the  services  of  the 
sanctuary,  the  offerings  of  our  hearts'  desire,  the  confession  of  our  sin,  our 
pledges  of  fidelity,  the  service  of  instruction,  the  fellowship  of  song,  and  all 
our  meditation,  may  be  sweet  to  us  and  to  thee.  And  may  all  this  day  be 
blest  of  the  Lord,  and  be  as  the  opening  of  the  gate  of  heaven  upon  earth  to 
us.  And  grant,  that  thus  ministered  unto,  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath,  we 
may  at  last  be  prepared  to  enter  that  rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God.    We  ask  it  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Aincn. 

6. 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE. 


•'  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness  ;  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."— Matt,  vi.,  33. 


What  things  ?  They  are  enumerated  in  the  foregoing  context, 
and  may  be  briefly  summed  up  by  saying  that  all  secular  necessities 
and  wants  will  be  provided  for — food,  raiment,  shelter — in  general, 
the  moans  of  livelihood.  It  is  declared  that  the  true  way  to  gain  a 
comfortable  livelihood  in  this  world,  is  not  to  seek  our  lowest  wants 
with  our  highest  feeling,  and  with  our  best  time,  and  with  greatest 
anxiety,  but  to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  first  ; 
and  that  all  these  other  things  will  be  drawn  on  in  the  train  of 
that. 

In  this  remarkable  passage  of  our  Saviour's  teaching  there  is  the 
clear  annunciation  of  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  and  special  providence. 
There  is  the  declaration  of  God's  personal  care  for  us  creatures  of 
the  human  family — of  the  whole  great  family  of  man. 

I.  It  is  not  the  doctrine,  here,  that  men  should  imitate  birds,  or 
that  they  should  leave  themselves,  as  flowers  do,  to  the  ministration 
of  natural  law.  In  other  words,  the  indolence  of  patient  waiting  is 
not  inculcated,  as  it  might  seem  to  some,  reading  hastily,  that  it  was. 
The  economy  of  this  world  is  such,  under  the  divine  government, 
that  the  very  smallest  and  the  least  powerful  things  are  sufficiently 
cared  for  and  supplied,  each  in  its  sphere  ;  each  within  the  reach  of 
the  appropriate  instruments  that  are  stored  up  in  it. 

The  worm  is  organized  so  that  it  has  in  its  nature  the  means  of 
taking  care  of  itself  The  higher  insects  are  organized  so  that  they, 
also,  are  able  to  take  care  of  their  necessary  Avants.  And  the  bird  is 
organized  so  that  it  takes  care  of  itself  by  the  appropriate  use  of  ita 
own  organs.  And  the  very  vegetable  kingdom  is  organized  in  such 
a  way  that  it  feeds,  and  thrives,  and  develops,  and  shoots  forth  all 
its  beauty. 

Now,  in  that  economy  by  which  God  has  arranged  the  universe 
so  that  each  thing  in  its  own  sphere  is  able  to  take  care  of  itself, 

SiTXBAY  MoRNiNO,  April  16,  1871.   Lesson:  Matt.  VI.  19-31.     Hymns  (Plymouth 

Collectiou)  :  Nos.  73, 193,  U6b. 


116  SFECIAL  DIVINE  FEOYIDENCE. 

and  is  cared  for ;  in  that  economy  by  wliicli  the  lowest  and  the  least 
are  amply  provided  for,  shall  God  forget  to  take  care  of  the  highest 
and  the  best  ?  That  is  the  argument.  It  is  an  appeal  to  men's  ob- 
servation. 

It  is  not  an  appeal  of  this  kind :  "  Do  not  work,  and  do  not 
plan  ;  stand  still  and  wait,  and  you  shall  be  fed.  The  birds  are 
cared  for,  and  the  lilies  are  cared  for,  and  you  shall  be  cared  for.'^ 
How  is  the  bird  cared  for  ?  He  gets  up  early  in  the  morning, 
and  goes  a-lninting,  and  looks  after  seeds  and  insects.  He  is  cared 
for  so  that  he  has  in  his  own  sphere,  in  himself,  the  preparation  for 
supplying  his  wants.  How  is  the  lily  cared  for  ?  It  pushes  its  roots 
down  deeper  and  deeper,  and  pushes  its  stem  up  further  and  further, 
and  draws  its  nourishment  from  earth  and  air.  In  its  own  blind  way 
it  enterprises.  Such  is  the  structure  of  the  world,  such  is  the 
divine  wisdom  manifested  in  the  creation  of  things,  that  everything, 
from  sphere  to  sphere,  down  to  the  lowest,  is  provided  with  means  for 
self-care.  And  the  Master  says,  "  Are  ye  not  much  better  than  they  ? 
And  has  God  forgotten  to^provide  for  you  ?  Has  he  not  clothed  you 
with  proper  power  ?  Has  he  not  given  you  equal  opportunity  ?  Has 
he  not  constructed  the  laws  of  the  universe  in  such  a  way  that  if  you 
put  forth  your  power  you  will  succeed  as  well  as  all  creatures  below 
you  ?  Are  you  not  as  wise  as  a  worm  ?  And  shall  a  worm  do  better 
than  you  ?  Are  you  not  equal  to  a  bird  ?  And  shall  a  bird  surpass 
you  ?  Are  your  reason  and  your  skill  therein  all  for  nothing  ?"  No, 
By  as  much  as  you  are  more  highly  organized,  by  so  much  your 
chances  multiply.  By  as  much  as  the  lowest  and  least  thing  in  creation 
unclier  God's  administration  is  able  to  maintain  itself  in  comfort,  by  so 
much  shall  the  highest  organization  in  his  government  be  amply  able 
to  take  care  of  itself.  Therefore  do  not  fret.  It  does  not  say,  nor  is  it 
intimated,  that  you  shall  not  work  nor  plan.  "  Take  no  thought " — 
that  was  translated  at  a  time  when  the  word  thought  signified 
anxious  thought.  Do  not  therefore  be  uneasy  and  disturbed,  taking 
that  kind  of  hot  thought  which,  rolling  round  and  round,  burns 
wherever  it  touches,  and  by  which  men  brood  over  their  troubles — 
over  those  things  that  are  not  troubles,  but  that  they  fear  will  be  ; 
fbr  two-thirds  of  all  our  suffering  and  friction  in  life  lies  in  the 
imagination — in  the  things  which  we  create  for  the  morrow  and  the 
next  day.  In  the  present,  everybody  is  able  to  stand  up  and  bear 
what  comes  to  him.  It  is  the  things  that  we  anticipate  wliich  we 
cannot  bear.  And  it  is  against  this  dread  of  things  in  the  future 
that  the  Saviour  utters  the  words,  "  Take  no  thought  "—no 
anxiety,  no  fret,  no  worry. 

It  is  a  declaration,  then,  of  a  providence  which  has  personal  su- 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  FBO  VIDENCE.  117 

pervision,  wliich  cares  for  the  least  things,  and  much  more  cares  for 
the  very  highest ;  and  which  not  only  cares  for  them,  but  has  pro- 
vided means,  and  will  maintain  the  provision,  by  which  everything 
in  its  order  and  place  shall  live  and  be  happy. 

II.  It  does  preclude  two  things :  First,  absorption  in  the  lower 
ends  of  life ;  and,  second,  wear  and  tear  of  mind  in  the  performance 
of  worldly  functions.  We  are  forbidden  to  seek  first  our  food  and 
raiment,  and  our  bodily  comforts — that  is,  "first"  as  being  transcendent 
in  importance  in  our  estimation.  Secular  prosperity  ought  not  to  be 
considered  the  chief  thing  for  us.  "We  are  forbidden  to  turn  all  the 
forces  of  our  natures  downward.  Inspired  of  God,  continually  di- 
rected by  Providence,  we  are  to  seek  something  better  than  the  per- 
ishable. We  are  not  forbidden  to  seek  that :  for  it  must,  in  one 
resjject,  precede  everything  else  in  the  order  of  time.  That  is,  a  man 
must  eat,  or  he  will  not  live  to  be  a  man.  He  must  be  clothed,  or 
winter  will  overtake  him  and  destroy  him.  He  must  have  shelter, 
or  the  storm  will  bring  with  it  sufiering  and  disaster  and  death.  So 
that  in  the  mere  matter  of  time  we  must  first  see  to  it  that  we  have 
bodily  life  and  bodily  health.  But  first  in  emphasis,  in  priority  of 
importance,  is  not  the  body  or  its  wants,  but  that  which  the  body 
carries.  The  soul,  the  character,  the  manhood — that  is  first.  In 
seeking  all  our  lower  wants  we  are  to  do  it,  not  with  anxiety. 

And  here  is  an  incidental  testimony  of  the  real  spirit  of  the  Gos- 
pel, which  many  have  supposed  to  be  a  pain-bearing  message — a 
system  of  religion  in  which  the  ascetic  principle  was  wholesome. 
But  according  to  the  teaching  of  our  Lord,  we  are  to  steer  away 
from  it.  We  are  not  to  fret  ourselves  with  anxieties.  We  are  not 
to  bear  pains  if  we  can  legitimately  get  away  from  them.  The  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  joy,  peace,  long-sufiering.  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is 
not  pain. 

III.  The  declaration  of  our  Saviour  here  does  not  seem  to  imply  a 
simple  indiscriminating  divine  providence  in  which,  or  under  which, 
the  wise  and  the  unwise,  the  good  and  the  bad,  all  are  treated  alike. 
It  is  true  that  the  sun  rises  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust ;  but  it 
does  not  treat  them  exactly  alike.  It  is  true  that  the  rain  falls  on 
the  good  and  on  the  bad  just  alike;  but  it  does  not  do  the  same 
thing  to  both.  The  rain  falls  on  sand,  and  leaves  sand ;  and  the  rain  I 
falls  on  soil,  and  leaves  a  large  crop  behind  it.  And  God's  sun  rises 
on  industrious  men  to  equip  them,  and  on  lazy  men  to  shame  them. 
It  sheds  its  light  and  warmth  upon  everything  alike ;  but  what  it 
does,  depends  upon  Avhat  receives  it.  And  there  is  a  special  divine 
providence  which  comes  to  all  men  ;  but  it  does  not  affect  them  alike. 
To  those  that  are  working  in  one  way,  and  in  a  lower  way,  it  still  is 


118  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PRO  VIBENCE. 

a  providence  ;  but  they  do  not  make  out  of  it,  and  it  does  not  make 
out  of  them,  what  a  providence  does  that  comes  to  men  who  are  wise, 
and  wise  morally. 

The  declaration  is  a  twofold  one.  It  is  a  declaration  of  a  super- 
intending providence,  but  of  a  providence  coupled  on  our  part  with 
obedience  to  law. 

Our  Saviour  annunciated  in  various  ways,  and  by  various  illus- 
trations, this  law  of  God's  provident  care  and  government.  If  you 
want  to  be  under  this  providence,  and  avail  yourselves  of  it,  then 
seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  so,  or 
then,  or  thus,  all  things  will  be  added  to  you.  He  does  not  say  to 
men,  "  Stand  in  your  places  ti'usting  in  God,  and  he  will  take  care 
of  the  lame  and  the  lazy."  That  is  man's  maxim.  The  divine  maxim 
is :  Stand  in  the  proper  sphere,  and  put  all  your  power  in  the  noblest 
service,  and  then,  so  acting,  God's  providence  will  bless  you  in  every- 
thing else.  It  is  not  an  unconditional  promise,  or  an  indiscriminat- 
ing  providence  that  will  release  men  from  all  care,  and  all  sorrow, 
and  all  want.  It  is  the  declaration,  by  implication,  of  the  truths  of 
God's  providence,  and  of  the  fact  that  it  works  with  those  that  aim 
toward  the  best  things.  It  is,  in  other  words,  identifying  providence 
and  natural  law.  Providence  is  but  another  name  for  natural  law. 
Natural  law  itself  would  go  out  in  a  minute  if  it  were  not  for  the 
divine  thought  that  is  behind  it.  All  laws  would  fall  imbecile,  and 
would  perish,  if  it  were  not  for  the  energizing  will  of  the  divine  mind 
behind  them.  Laws  are  but  instruments  by  which  God's  purposes 
are  being  worked  out  in  the  world. 

Now,  the  implication  of  our  Master  is  this :  that  those  who 
work  for  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness — that  is,  as  I 
understand  it,  those  who  take  their  reason  and  highest  moral  facul- 
ties, and  aim  with  them  for  the  best  purposes  of  life — not  only  will 
be  sure  to  succeed  in  the  thing  itself,  but  will  draw  after  it  all  that 
lies  below  or  behind.  The  greater  includes  the  less  ;  so  that  if  a  man 
desires  honor,  integrity  precedes  honor ;  if  a  man  desires  wealth, 
benevolence  leads  to  wealth ;  if  a  man  desires  physical  pleasure, 
virtue  is  the  road  to  physical  pleasure.  By  the  highest  we  find  the 
gateway  to  the  lowest.  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness,"  and  all  those  things  which  the  body  wants,  or  the 
lower  nature  wants,  shall  be  added — and  in  innocuous  forms ;  be- 
cause they  come  under  the  regulating  influences  of  the  moral  sense 
and  the  experienced  life. 

The  sum  of  the  teaching,  then,  is  this:  Let  every  one  make  his 
superior  moral  duties  paramount.  Then  let  him  not  fret  concerning 
his  bodily  necessities  and  wants.     God's  providence  is  such  that  the 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  PRO  VIBENCE.  119 

greater  duty  will  include,  when  performed  in  its  fruition,  all  that  is 
subordinate.  And  upon  this  foundation  I  proceed  to  make  some 
points  of  application. 

1.  There  is  a  divine  government  that  regards  the  Avelfare  of  in- 
dividual men.  This  is  implied  in  the  belief  of  a  God  that  sustains 
the  order  of  nature.  I  suppose  no  man  willfully  rejects  the  belief 
of  a  special,  present  providence,  taking  care  of  every  particular  of 
our  lives.  No  man,  certainly,  objects  to  that  on  account  of  its  dis- 
agreeableness.  I  apprehend  that  those  who  reflectively  reject  it,  do 
so  with  regret.  It  certainly  is  something  which  one  should  wish  to 
believe.  It  is  a  thing  to  be  desired.  No  person,  in  his  hours  of 
conscious  weakness,  when  he  realizes  the  great  sphere  in  which  he 
is  acting,  and  the  mighty  forces  that  are  wheeling  around  about 
him ;  no  man,  when  he  feels  his  own  insignificance,  can  help  yearn- 
ing, it  seems  to  me,  to  have  it  so.  A  man  is  bafiied  when  he  looks 
into  the  future,  and  sees  how  poor  his  perceptions  are,  and  considers 
how  imperfect  his  business  vaticinations  are.  And  he  has  the  feeling 
that  it  would  be  transcendently  blessed  to  be  under  the  care  of  a 
God  who  thinks  for  us  ;  who  takes  the  thread  of  our  life  and  spins 
it  out  to  the  long  length  necessary  for  our  welfare  ;  who  takes  the 
blossoms  of  our  life,  and  fructifies  them,  and  brings  them  to  fruit. 

But  men  say,  "  It  does  not  stand  to  reason,  and  it  is  not  conso- 
nant with  observation — with  what  we  actually  see  in  life.  For  we 
perceive  that  everything  comes  by  law ;  and  that  if  a  man  fulfills 
law  he  is  blessed,  while  if  he  does  not  fulfill  law  he  is  not  blessed. 
Therefore,  to  preach  the  doctrine  that  there  is  a  special  providence 
that  interferes  with  and  interrupts  law,  and  makes  it  somethino-  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is,  in  the  stated  order  of  things,  destroys  the 
foundation  of  men's  experience  and  the  results  of  their  observation." 
They  say,  "  It  is  true  that  God  governs  the  world  by  laws  •  and 
these  laws  are  constant  and  immutable  ;  and  if  men  obey  they  reap 
the  fruit  of  obedience,  while  if  they  disobey,  they  reap  that  other 
fruit.  And  as  to  God's  substituting  in  their  place  a  government  of 
favoritism,  or  a  specialty  of  direct  divine  volition,  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  this.     All  the  presumptions  are  against  it." 

We  do  not  say  that.  We  do  not  say  or  think  that  the  spe- 
cial providence  of  God  is  one  that  supersedes  law,  or  that  it  im- 
pletes  it,  and  makes  it  what  it  was  not  in  its  plan  and  economy. 
We  do  not  say,  either,  that  there  is  interjected  between  laws  a 
divine  fructifying  power.  We  do  not  undertake  to  say  what  the 
divine  providence  is.  But  we  do  undertake  to  say  that  the  Scripture 
teaches  that  the  divine  providence  acts  by  law,  and  through  law,  and 
not  under  it  nor  over  it,  nor  existing  by  the  destruction  of  it.     It  is 


V 


120  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PEOriDUNCK 

simply  a  provisioH  by  whicli  they  who  obey  to  the  measure  of  their 
strength  in  their  respective  spheres,  and  take  the  laws,  and  hold 
the  closest  to  them,  will  find  that  they  are  most  brought  under  the 
benefits  of  divine  providence.  There  is  a  sustaining  power  that 
blesses  obedience. 

Look,  how  men  reason  on  this  subject.  They  say,  "  Natural 
laws  are  all  that  we  know — great  natiiral  laws."  What  do  you 
mean  by  great  natural  laws  ?  "  Well,  the  natural  laws  by  which 
the  globe  coheres  ;  by  which  it  moves  ;  by  which  the  seasons  come  ; 
natural  laws  as  they  are  interpreted  through  chemistry,  as  they  are 
interpreted  in  physics  ;  all  the  laws  that  are  interpreted  on  the 
globe."  But  is  that  the  only  thing  that  the  Lord  made — this  great 
globe,  which  is  his  footstool  ?  Is  not  man  a  part  of  this  globe  ?  Is 
there  not  more  of  nature  inside  of  man  than  there  is  outside  of  him  ? 
What  is  there  that  is  worth  anything  in  this  world  outside  of  man  ? 
Everything  else  is  shucks,  husks.  Man  is  the  fruit  that  everything 
has  at  last  culminated  in.  All  the  process  of  evolution  and  develop- 
ment, from  what  theories  soever  you  study  it,  culminates  in  man. 
And  if  you  want  to  study  nature,  study  huinan  nature.  Study  man- 
kind ;  and  what  you  find  of  the  divine  economy  there,  is  the  economy 
of  God's  natural  law.  Not  brute  matter,  not  the  great  law  of  physi- 
cal force,  is  the  richest  field  for  investigation ;  but  human  nature,  with 
endless  variations  and  combinations. 

The  divine  providence  is  a  providence  that  conforms  to  the  laws  of 
nature  which  it  has  made ;  and  it  conforms  to  the  laws  of  the  human 
family  which  are  its  children.  What  is  the  law  then  ?  Is  it  that  one 
cannot  help  another  ?  Is  that  the  result  of  experience  and  of  philoso- 
phy in  interpreting  the  laws  of  nature  ?  Cannot  human  nature  do  any- 
thing? Does  every  person  stand  still  and  say — the  mother  to  the  babe, 
and  the  father  to  the  child,  and  the  school-teacher  to  the  scholar,  and 
the  master-artist  to  the  artist-pupil — "  I  am  unable  to  do  anything  for 
you"  ?  Does  the  world  go  upon  the  theory  that  everything  is  fixed? 
Do  men  say  to  each  other,  "  There  are  great  natural  laws :  obey  them, 
and  you  will  be  able  to  take  care  of  yourself.  Do  not  come  to  me  "? 
Does  the  master  mechanic,  when  the  apprentice  comes  to  him  and 
says,  "  I  want  to  learn  this  trade,"  say,  "  This  trade  consists  of  the 
application  of  natural  laws  :  now  apply  natural  laws,  and  you  will 
'  learn  it.  Do  it  yourself"  ?  Cannot  the  master  help  the  apprentice  ? 
Cannot  one  man  teach  another  how  to  make  a  barrel,  or  a  hat,  or  a 
house,  or  a  ship,  or  a  picture,  or  a  statue  ?  Is  it  so  that  you  cannot 
use  natural  laws  ?  Is  it  so  that  we  are  walking  powerless  in  the 
midst  of  these  great  agencies  of  matter,  and  that  no  man  can  make 
any  variation  in  his  life  and  experience  ?     Does  not  the  history  of 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  FBOYIDENCE.  121 

the  race  show  that  men  have  the  jiower  of  using  natural  laws — some 
BO  that  they  die  in  the  poorhouse,  and  others  so  that  tliey  die  in  a 
home — some  alone  amid  the  squalor  of  vice,  and  others  amidst 
angels  from  above  and  from  below,  angels  of  the  family  and 
angels  of  heaven  ?  Is  there  not  evidence  on  every  hand  that  they 
who  use  natural  laws  in  right  ways  will  be  blessed  thereby? 
Is  it  not  demonstrated  to  us  continually,  that  there  is  a  system  of 
natural  laws  which  adapts  itself  to  your  nature  and  my  nature ;  to 
your  will  and  my  will ;  to  your  reason  and  my  reason  ;  to  your  power 
of  combination  and  my  power  of  combination  ?  All  the  heaven  and 
all  the  earth  are  a  part  of  the  one  great  natural  law.  And  the  ex- 
perience of  human  life  is  this :  that  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  whether  natural  laws  are  used  by  rational,  intelligent  beings, 
free  to  choose  or  to  refuse,  or  whether  they  are  not  used  at  all. 

More  than  that,  because  I  cannot  make  one  hair  of  my  child 
white  or  black,  because  I  cannot,  by  crying  or  teaching,  add  one 
cubit  to  his  stature,  cannot  I  make  any  difference  in  the  fate  of  that 
child  ?  Does  not  my  example  and  experience  change  his  circum- 
stances ?  and  cannot  I  guide  him  ?  Steering  amidst  natural  laws 
on  every  side,  does  it  make  no  differenee  what  I  do  to  my  children  ? 
While  I  do  not  destroy  natural  law,  I  stand  by  them,  and  first 
train  them,  and  afterwards  advise  them,  and  then  influence  them ; 
and  it  is  my  vitality  that  makes  natural  laws  in  the  case  of  my  chil- 
dren minister  to  their  prosperity  all  the  way  down.  And  yet,  with 
this  in  every  household,  with  this  in  every  store,  with  this  in  every 
shop,  with  this  on  every  ship,  with  this  in  every  phase  of  national 
life,  men  are  standing  up,  white-faced,  apparently  without  a  drop  of 
blood  in  their  veins,  or  a  particle  of  sympathy  with  actual  life  in 
their  souls,  saying,  "  Oh  !  first  find  out  natural  laws,  and  obey  them. 
That  is  the  best  way.  You  can  get  at  nothing  else  !"  With  this 
l^icture  ;  with  life  for  a  perpetual  parable  ;  with  that  which  you  see 
in  your  own  experience,  and  in  the  experience  of  others,  do  not  you 
see  that  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  whether  natural 
laAvs  have  a  palpitating  heart  behind  them,  and  a  guiding  intelli- 
gence over  them  ?  Do  not  you  see  that  natural  laws  are  barren  and 
fruitless  till  they  are  taken  hold  of  by  luiman  volition  ?  And  yet, 
men  still  reason  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  special  jjrovidence. 
They  say,  "  It  is  absurd  to  teach  that  the  divine  will  does  anything. 
Natural  law  does  evei-ything."  It  is  a  lie !  Every  wise  household 
pronounces  it  false.     Every  organized  business  pronounces  it  false. 

Well,  since  man  is  so  strong  that  he  can  make  all  natural  laws 
servo  liim,  he  saddles  them,  and  rides  them.  They  are  his  bow,  by 
which  he  projects  the  golden  arrow  of  success.     Natural  laws  aro 


122  SPECIAL  DIVINE  FBOVIDENCE. 

means  ;  tliey  are  servants ;  and  what  tliey  do  depends  upon  liow 
they  are  used.  The  elements  essential  to  a  successful  life  are  natural 
law,  human  volition,  and  intelligence.  You  cannot  separate  them. 
A  man  is  made  mighty,  and  is  carried  through  civilization  by  their 
use.  And  will  you  come  in  and  tell  me  that  the  most  helpless  being 
in  the  universe — more  helpless  than  the  mother  or  the  father ;  more 
helpless  than  the  statesman ;  more  helpless  than  a  general ;  more 
helpless  than  a  bird,  even,  is  God  ?  Does  he  say,  "  I  made  the  world, 
and  set  it  in  motion,  and  forgot  to  keep  hold  of  it,  and  it  has  gone 
out  of  my  hand,  and  all  I  can  do  is  to  wind  it  up  and  keep  it  a-going. 
I  wish  I  had  the  power  to  control  it.  I  see  that  father  down  there 
using  all  these  wonderful  agencies  that  I  put  into  this  world ;  and 
i  the  laws  which  I  ordained  obey  him ;  and  he,  through  these  instru- 
mentalities, is  able  to  bless  his  family.  I  wish  I  could  bless  my 
children  on  earth,  too "?  Away  with  any  such  idea  as  that  God 
stands  behind  laws,  and  must  not  touch  them  ;  as  that  he  is  outside 
,  of  his  world,  and  must  not  meddle  with  it.  There  is  nothing  in  this 
i  world  so  imbecile  as  such  a  God  as  that,  except  the  fool  who  made 
the  conception  of  it.  All  this  show  of  science,  all  this  pretentious 
modernism,  all  the  wonderful  .revelations  of  natural  law,  and  what 
not,  which  undertake  to  exclude  God  from  the  globe,  are  'unphilo- 
sophical,  are  unscientific,  and  are  perpetually  answered  by  the  living 
experiences  of  mankind.  And  we  have  only  this  to  say  :  that  if  God 
is  commrable  to  the  average  of  ordinary  men  and  women,  he  can 
meddle  with  natural  laws ;  and  he  does,  for  your  benefit  and  for 
mipe.  And  it  does  not  destroy  the  economy  of  the  globe  that  he 
does  do  it. 

Do  you  suppose,  when  wool  is  put  on  the  wheel  of  the  old  house- 
wife (some  of  you  may  remember  the  days  Avhen  such  a  thing  was 
known),  and  she  spins  it  out  in  long  threads,  that  it  is  a  violation  of 
natural  law,  because  the  wool  was  made  to  grow  on  a  sheep's  back  ? 
It  was  made  to  grow  on  a  sheep's  back  at  first,  for  him ;  but  after- 
wards it  was  designed  to  serve  you.  And  is  it  a  violation  of  natural 
law  that  the  shuttle  carries  the  thread  backward  and  forward  to 
make  cloth  for  you  ?  No.  Natural  law  is  a  weaver.  God  meant 
that  it  should  be.  And  all  through  the  world  natural  laws  are  not 
like  wax  candles,  standing  up  and  burning  at  one  end,  unable  to 
stir  or  do  a  tlnng.  They  are  subtle.  They  split  into  endless  appli- 
cations. Tiiey  may  be  used  in  numberless  ways.  They  take  on 
human  thought,  and  they  take  in  human  feeling.  They  serve  those 
that  know  how  to  persuade  them.  The  most  subtle,  and  the  most 
used  of  all  agencies  are  these  natural  laws,  by  which  men  build  up 
and  take  down;  by  which  they  bring  within  their  reach  all  that  the 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE.  l23 

hand  can  do,  and  all  that  the  eye  can  discover.  And  what  is  it  but 
tiie  control  of  the  human  spirit  over  natural  law?  And  is  God  less 
than  a  man  ?     Is  he  not  even  as  big  as  a  philosopher  ? 

If,  then,  any  of  you  have  been  shaken  from  your  confidence  in 
special  providence  by  the  scientific  sciolism  of  the  day,  I  beseech  of 
you  to  think  again. 

2.  While  there  is  a  divine  special  providence,  it  does  not  set 
aside  any  natural  law.  It  proceeds  according  to  natural  laws,  and 
works  by  them.  It  is  in  fulfillment  of  our  highest  duties  to  moral 
law  that  God's  providence  meets  us.  In  other  words,  we  are  not 
to  trust  to  divine  providence  until  after  we  have  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  our  own  knowledge.  And  in  general,  divine  providence 
Avill  work  from  the  law  which  you  accept,  and  to  which  you  are 
most  obedient.  The  best  way  for  a  man  to  be  rid  of  sickness,  is 
to  so  observe  natural  laws  as  not  to  get  sick.  God's  special  provi- 
dence is  always  on  the  side  of  the  temperate.  If  you  would  have 
deliverance  in  any  emergency,  study  the  circumstances  and  condi- 
tions in  which  you  are.  Avail  yourself  to  the  uttermost  of  every 
resource.  The  more  you  exert  your  own  power,  the  more  you  study, 
and  the  more  nearly  you  obey  all  natural  laws,  the  nearer  will  you 
come  to  God.  It  is  out  of  those  very  laws  that  operate  in  the  spheres 
where  you  are  working  that  God  will  show  his  face.  It  is  out  of 
those  laws  that  he  will  reach  forth  his  hands  ;  and  he  will  employj'not 
simply  the  laws  that  surround  you,  but  the  laws  that  are  in  you. 
And  your  will  is  to  be  operative.  God  will  worJc  in  you  to  will  and 
to  do  of  his  good  pleasure ;  and  that  will  give  you  deliverance. 

So,  then,  the  doctrine  of  divine  special  providence  does  not  set 
aside  natural  laws.  Neither  does  it  set  aside  human  volitions.  It 
does  not  say  to  men,  "  Stand  and  see  the  will  of  God  performed  for 
you."  If  God's  special  providence  succors  you,  it  succors  you 
through  yourself.  It  awakens  the  reason.  It  directs  the  will.  It 
inspires  industry.  And  he  is  helped  of  God  who  has  learned  to  help 
himself.  The  doctrine  of  special  providence  does  not  protect  indo- 
lence. On  the  contrary,  as  its  conditions  imply  the  use  of  one's 
own  faculties,  in  the  belief  that  God  watches,  and  that  God  sym- 
pathizes, and  that  God  helps  those  that  help  themselves,  it  tends  to 
enterprise,  to  fidelity,  and  to  unremitting  endeavor.  ■ 

3.  The  whole  experience  of  the  world,  even  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  corroborates  and  illustrates  the  declaration  of  our 
Saviour — namely,  that  law  and  providence  are  on  the  side  of  the 
highest  moral  qualities.  In  other  words,  the  man  that  aims  at  the 
noblest  manhood  will  secure  the  most  of  all  the  things  that  lie  be^ 
low  manhood. 


124  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PBO YIDENGE. 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  he  added  unto  you." 

If  you  get  tliem,  you  get  them  "with  a  great  deal  more.  And  I 
say  that  while  there  is  a  vague  acceptance  of  this,  there  is  apt  to 
be  a  skepticism  about  it.  Men,  just  at  the  point  where  they  are 
obliged  to  choose  between  integrity  and  purity  of  character  and 
success,  are  apt  to  fall  from  the  higher,  and  seek  success  first,  and 
say,  "  Afterwards  we  will  whip  round  and  get  character  and  integ- 
rity." Bnt  the  experience  of  the  world  is  that  they  who  seek  Jii-st 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  draw  the  largest  train 
of  common  worldly  blessings  with  them. 

A  contrary  idea  arises  from  those  epochs  of  controversy  and  of 
conflict  which  have  originated  from  irregularities  in  life.  There  are 
times  when  men  are  thrown  out  of  their  normal  conditions — times 
of  war,  times  of  revolution,  times  of  persecution — when  nothing  seems 
acting  in  the  sphere  of  law,  uninterruptedly,  and  all  connection 
between  cause  and  effect  appears  at  fault.  Under  such  circum- 
stances a  man  may  dwell  in  his  highest  manhood,  and  yet  dwell  in 
the  wilderness.  And  even  in  regard  to  what  are  the  more  excep- 
tional cases,  if  you  measure  human  life  by  the  haj^piness  which  men 
enjoy  in  it  (and  that  is  the  popular  measui-e),  I  aver  that  the  out- 
casts and  those  that  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  not  only 
obey  the  command  to  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,  but  are  gladder 
than  men  who  are  in  worldly  prosperity.  Take  a  man  who  is  living 
for  the  exaltation  of  moral  princi2:)le  ;  take  a  man  who  is  giving  him- 
self for  a  noble  cause,  whatever  it  may  be.  One  man  gives  himself 
to  temperance  ;  he  seeks  to  deliver  his  fellows  from  the  thrall  of  vio- 
lent passions  ;  and  he  neither  amasses  wealth  nor  seeks  to  exalt  him- 
self in  life.  He  lives  poorly.  By  and  by  liis  frugality  becomes 
poverty.  Another  man  has  lived  prosperously,  luxuriously,  royally. 
He  seeks  physical  pleasure,  and  he  gets  it.  And  if  you  take  the 
gauge  of  those  two  men's  hearts,  God  knows,  and  you  know,  that 
the  man  who  has  lived  for  a  great  moral  end,  sacrificing  every 
earthly  hope,  has  had  more  hours  irradiated  with  happiness  than  the 
man  who  has  lived  for  the  gratification  of  his  lower  nature.  He  may 
have  been  a  poor  man  ;  but  he  has  reaped  more  real  enjoyment  in  the 
woi-ld  than  the  self-indulgent  man  who  seemed  to  have  everything 
his  own  way.  For  the  power  of  being  happy  does  not  consist  in 
what  you  have. 

"  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he 
possesseth." 

It  depends  upon  how  many  chords  there  are  in  a  man's  heart 
which  vibrate  to  the  touch  of  joy;  and  a  man  who  is  obese  in  a 
lower  prosperous  life  is  all  the  time  covering  up  those  noblest  chords 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  FEO  VIDENCE.  125 

from  which  the  highest  happiness  resounds ;  while  a  man  who  lives 
for  a  noble  end  by  noble  motives,  and  keeps  his  conscience  clear  and 
clean,  has  touched  in  him,  by  airy  hands,  chords  that  give  forth 
music  such  as  is  never  known  to  the  lower  nature. 

Take  a  man  who  has  run  through  the  whole  career  of  influence 
and  power  in  politics,  and  in  the  better  kinds  of  them — those  that 
mix  a  certain  sort  of  integrity  and  patriotism  with  the  service  of 
of  the  State ;  take  a  man  who  has  been  advanced,  step  by  step,  and 
has  gone  through  the  Legislature,  and  has  got  to  Congress,  and  has 
risen  from  the  House  to  the  Senate,  and  has  at  last  come  to  the  Vice- 
presidency    (that   is   usually  fatal   to    any   man),  and  has  perhaps 
touched  the  Presidency ;  take  a  man  who  gives  his  whole  life  to  am- 
bitions which  lead  him  into  circumstances  where  he  is  continually 
stirred  up  with  malign  feelings — take  such  a  man,  and  review  his 
history.      Look  at  the  elements  of  his  experience — all  the  care,  all 
the  fear,  all  the  collisions,  all  the  weariness,  all  the  disappointments, 
all  the  suspicions,  all  the  envies,  all  the  jealousies,  all  the  bitter  ha- 
treds, all  the  fiery  turmoils,  all  the  emergencies,  which  he  has  gone 
through,  and  in  which  he  is  obliged  to  fortify  himself,  and  fight  in- 
numerable  adversaries,  some   attacking   him  from   beneath,   some 
poiiring  hot  shells   on  his  head  from  above,  some  on  one  side,  and 
some  on  another,  giving  him  battle.     Trace  the  life  of  such  a  man, 
if  living   in   his   lower   nature,  and   he  is  all  his   life  long  going 
to  be  happy,  going  to  be  happy,  and  going  to  be  happy,  and  you 
will  find  that  the  happiness  to  which  he  attains  is  not  to  be  compared 
with  the  happiness  of  the  humble  man  who  devotes  his  life  to  some 
benevolent  object.     I  do  not  believe  that  of  the  men  who  rise  to  the 
hio-hest  places  in  public  life,  one  in  a  hundred  is  to  be  envied,  if  hap- 
piness is  to  be  the  test.     It  seems  to  me  that  they  are  to  be  pitied, 
rather.     But  Garrison,  who  was  regarded  as  a  poor  wretch,  who  was 
pitied  by  other  men,  who  was  accommodated  with  eggs  that  nobody 
wanted,  who  was  all  his  life  a  foot-fall  under  fools'  feet,  and  who  was 
hunted  up  and  down — I  venture  to  say  that  he  had  more  happiness, 
more  exhilaration  (more  during  his  persecution,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  joys  of  his  old  age)  that  made  him  say,  "  I  would  give  more  for 
one  such  hour  as  this  than  for  a  round  year  of  common  enjoyments — " 
I  venture  to  say  that  he  had  more  such  happiness  than  the  most  success- 
ful man  in  political  life.     The  fact  is  simple :  If  you  play  on  the 
chords  in  the  top  of  a  man's  head,  you  get  music  the  sweetest  and 
the  longest  prolonged ;  and  if  you  play  on  basilar  chords,  they  are 
dull,  and  snap  heavily,  and  the  music  is  poor  in  quality  anyhow.    If 
you  take  the  exceptional  cases  of  men  that  are,  for  the  sake  of  in- 
tegrity and  principle,  persecuted  and  cast  out,  there  is  more  joy  in  a 


126  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PBO  VIDENCE. 

prison  than  in  the  palace  that  is  over  it.  There  was  more  joy  on  a 
cross  than  among  the  barbarous  soldiers  that  had  the  power  to  cru- 
cify the  Holy  One.  There  is  often  more  joy  in  men  that  are  poor  than 
among  the  rich.  There  is  more  joy  in  those  that  give  their  life  and 
their  everything  than  in  those  that  are  rich  because  they  give 
nothing. 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you  [by  and  by]. 

I  never  knew  a  man  yet  who  had  not  the  means  of  paying  for 
his  keeping  in  one  hotel — Greenwood.  Everybody  will  reach  that. 
And  until  you  get  there  you  need  not  be  a  bit  afraid.  You  will 
always  have  strength  to  get  to  the  grave.  Men  act  as  though  they 
feared  they  would  not.  They  fret,  and  fuss,  and  do  not  know  what 
will  become  of  them.  The  worst  thing  that  can  happen  to  you  is 
not  dying.  That  is  the  best  thing  that  can  happen  to  you.  It  is 
the  end  of  all  care.  You  need  not  be  troubled.  There  is  a  bow 
that  is  shooting  you,  and  that  will  certainly  carry  you  to  that  mark. 
You  will  never  stumble  nor  fall  so  but  that  you  can  get  to  the 
grave.  The  grave  is  the  gate  of  heaven.  It  is  the  dawn  of  a  better 
day.  It  is  the  beginning  of  an  unobstructed  life  in  which  all  things 
shall  be  added  to  you.  You  will  always  have  enough  given  to  you 
of  food  and  clothes  to  get  you  to  the  end  of  life.  And  the  nearer 
it  comes,  the  better  for  you — often.  Many  and  many  a  man  lives  too 
long,  by  half. 

But  then,  while  these  things  are  true  on  that  side,  there  is 
another  view — namely,  the  general  declaration  that  spiritual  moral- 
ity produces  temporal  benefit.  Is  not  that  borne  out  by  the  inspec- 
tion of  society,  and  life  itself  ?  What  have  been  the  facts  of  civili- 
zation ?  We  all  admit  that  civilization  is  a  term  aiFecting  the  en- 
nobling of  human  life  in  the  individual  collectively.  It  is  a  term  of 
prosperity  as  applied  to  ages  or  nations. 

Now,  has  civilization  depended  upon  the  predominance  of 
material  force,  or  has  civilization  followed  the  line  of  moral  sense, 
and  the  line  of  the  aesthetic,  and  the  line  of  the  good,  the  true  and 
the  beautiful  ? — for  these  have  been  the  three  angels  that  have  led 
men  up,  step  by  step,  in  power,  in  abundance,  and  in  happiness. 

Or,  looking  at  it  in  another  point  of  view,  what  classes  are  they 
in  the  community  that  are  prospering  most  ?  Single  men  there  seem 
to  be  who  rush  along  the  road  of  prosperity,  and  succeed,  not  by 
moral  law,  but  in  spite  of  moral  law.  I  shall  not  discuss  their  cases. 
Their  end  is  to  be  the  judge.  But,  taking  classes,  what  class  in  the 
community  is  it  that  is  the  most  prosperous  !  Are  the  men  who 
saci-ifice  everything  to   their   appetites  and  passions  as  a   general 


BFEGIAL  BIVINE  FEOVIDUNCH.  127 

thing  the  most  prosperous  men  ?  The  men  tliat  lie  ;  the  men  that 
forswear  tliemselves  ;  the  men  tliat  are  niggard  of  benevolence  ;  the 
men  that  live  for  themselves  ;  the  men  of  the  coldest  hearts  and  the 
least  benefactions  ;  the  men  that  are  the  most  purely  selfish — are 
these  the  men  that  prosper,  as  classes,  best  ?  Is  it  not  the  public 
opinion  of  every  village,  that  the  virtuous,  the  industrious,  the 
frugal,  the  trut?,  are  the  ones  that  thrive  ? 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  uuto  you." 

It  is  not  the  kingdom  of  this  Avorld.  Follow  the  develojiment  of 
classes,  and  notice  the  higher  morality  in  a  man.  There  is  not  a 
man  who  has  a  thousand  lots  on  the  edge  of  Brooklyn  who  would 
not  build  a  church  and  a  school-house  on  them.  He  says,  "  I  do 
not  care  for  religion  ;  I  do  not  care  whether  the  church  is  Episco- 
palian or  Presbyterian  or  Methodist ;  I  do  not  care  who  runs  it ;  but 
I  want  the  church."  Why  do  you  want  it  ?  "  Because  it  will  en- 
hance the  value  of  my  property."  Even  dirt  goes  up  in  value 
under  such  circumstances. 

I  suppose  that  there  is  no  class  among  us  that  more  exemplify  a 
certain  principle  of  the  words  of  the  Gospel  than  the  Quakers.  Their 
houses  and  their  lands  are  proverbial  ;  and  they  themselves,  as  a 
general  rule,  have  the  look  of  the  meek.  They  look  as  though  thev 
had  possessed  the  earth  ;  and  a  very  fat  earth,  too.  They  are 
generally  persons  who  thrive,  who  live  at  peace,  who  are  univer- 
sally resjjected ;  and  they  do  extract  as  much  honey  from  this  great 
world-flower  as  any  other  class  of  people  in  the  whole  community. 
And  is  it  not  irresistibly  evident  that  their  prosperity  is  the  natural 
effect  of  a  cause — the  moral  ideas  that  they  are  living  on  ?  And 
does  not  the  one  flow  in  the  train  of  the  other  ? 

Take  those  sects  that  are  most  rigid.  Take,  for  instance,  tl^ 
Calvinists  of  New  England,  Persons  rail  at  them ;  but  they  were 
men  that  believed  in  their  doctrines.  They  put  God  first,  the  com- 
monwealth next,  and  the  citizen  next  ;  and  they  lived  accordingly. 
And  where  do  you  find  prosperity  that  averages  as  it  does  in 
Switzerland  and  Scotland  and  New  England  ?  Men  may  rail  as  much 
as  they  please  ;  but  there  are  the  facts.  There  is  the  old  New  En- 
gland territory,  so  naturally  thin  and  cold  and  sterile  that  ordinary 
men  would  have  starved  on  it;  and  it  took  the  Calvinists  to  cultivate 
it.  There  was  that  in  them  which  put  steel  on  the  edge  of  their  every 
instrument,  and  made  it  cut.  They  brought  to  bear  industry,  and 
the  sternness  of  the  doctrines  of  God,  and  the  stimulus  of  the  divine 
impulse,  on  all  the  purposes  of  their  life  ;  and  they  redeemed  the 
wilderness,  and  built  a  structure  of  government  such  as  never  was 
built  anywhere  else.     Thorough-blooded  were  they  j   and  the  blood 


128  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PBOYIBENGE. 

of  the  Yankee  has  been  the  salvation  of  the  continent.  You  do  not 
like  to  believe  that.  It  does  not  make  any  difference  whether  you 
do  or  not,  there  is  the  fact.  If  you  go  to  the  extremest  borders  of 
our  country,  even  on  the  northwest,  the  west,  or  southwest, 
and  find  a  man  that  takes  the  lead  in  education,  he  is  a 
Yankee — or  his  wife  is.  If  you  find  a  man  that  manages 
a  bank,  he  is  a  Yankee.  If  you  find  a  man  that  is  an  engi- 
neer or  a  manager  on  a  railroad,  he  is  a  Yankee,  If  you  find  a 
man  in  a  position  that  requires  foresight  and  calculation,  he  is  a 
Yankee.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  are  no  others  in  such 
positions  ;  but  the  fact  is  so  general  that  there  is  a  philosophy 
deducible  from  it.  You  will  find  that  everywhere  the  calculating, 
methodical  Yankee  brain  is  developing  and  systematizing  the 
resources  of  the  country,  and  making  it  strong  and  rich.  You  may 
damn  the  Yankee  as  much  as  you  please,  but  it  has  been  that 
Calvinistically  bred  Yankee  brain  that  has  made  the  foundations  of 
this  government  firm  and  secure.  It  was  the  Yankee  conscience  that 
smote  the  devil  of  slavery  and  destroyed  it  ;  and  it  is  the  Yankee 
heart  that  will  build  school-houses  all  over  the  land,  and  defend  the 
poor  and  weak,  and  make  justice  the  stability  of  our  times.  And 
righteousness  wi'll  rain  down  on  future  generations  in  this  land,  not 
because  these  men  were  Yankees,  but  simply  because  they  obeyed 
the  divine  injunction, 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 

A  nation  that  has  faith  in  that,  and  that  piats  moral  principle 
higher  than  anything  else,  will  suffer  for  it,  and  will  have  dark  times, 
and  revolutions,  it  may  be  ;  but,  after  all,  it  is  a  fact  which  is  corrob- 
orated by  history,  that  they  who  seek  God's  kingdom  and  righteous- 
ness, shall  have  everything  else  in  over-measure. 

There  is  a  lesson  in  this  to  every  young  man.  There  is  a  lesson 
in  it  to  those  who  are  preparing  to  launch  their  bark  on  the  sea  of 
life.  There  is  a  lesson  in  it  to  those  who  look  upon  the  ill-gotten 
success  and  temporary  prosperity  that  will  fall  rotten  to  the  ground. 
If  you  do  not  believe  in  tlie  Word  of  God,  then  take  your  interpre- 
tation from  history,  and  you  will  find  that  on  an  average,  through 
midtitudes,  and  from  age  to  age,  he  who  uses  his  reason  most  clearly, 
and  his  moral  sense  most  fruitfully,  and  his  conscience  most  persist- 
ently, will  have  all  lower  blessings  in  the  greatest  abundance. 

Once  more,  we  shall  see  the  compass  by  which  men  steer  in 
trouble.  When  the  pi-osperity  of  a  man  is  interrupted,  then  the 
devil  comes  behind  him  and  whispers,  "  Save  yourself.  A  little  ob- 
liquity, a  little  yielding  to  custom,  will  save  you."  When  integrity 
is  beckoning  him,  and  the  world  on  the  other  side  is  making  fair 


SPECIAL  BIYINE  PBOVIBENCE.  129 

promises,  then  the  devil  says,  "This  is  the  way  to  prosperity — to  go, 
down  ;  to  sacrifice  to  tlie  flesh,  to  the  pocket,  to  hist,  and  to  dishon- 
or."     "  No,"  says  the  voice  of  God,  "  if  there  is  any  time  when  a  man ' 
must  stand  for  himself  and  for  his  manhood,  and  keep  his  hands ' 
clean,  and  his  heart  pure,  it  is  when  things  ai*e  going  against  him. } 
They  will  only  go  that  way  a  little  while.     In  the  end  everything  | 
will  serve  an  honest  man."     Such  is  God's  decree.     All  the  universe ! 
is  helping  a  man  to  be  manly  who  will  only  help  himself.     And  at 
these  very  times  when  you  are  tempted  to  give  up  principle  for  the 
sake  of  worldly  things,  the  voice  of  God  comes  to  you,  saying,  "  Seek 
first  my  kingdom  and  its  righteousness.     Be  an  honest  man,  a  true 
man,  a  bold  and  strong  man.    Stand  up,  and  hold  yourself  back  from 
destruction,  if  you  do  not  your  property.     Keep  yourself  floating, 
and  everything  else  will  come  by  and  by."     A  man  that  has  lost 
himself,  and  saved  his  property,  has  saved  nothing ;  but  a  man  who 
has  saved  himself,  though  he  has  lost  his  property,  has  saved  every- 
thing that  is  worth  saving.     It  is  that  which  is  inside  of  a  man,  and 
not  that  which  is  outside  of  him,  that  determines  value. 

HoAV  long  shall  it  be  before  the  world  will  learn  these  simple 
truths  ?  How  strange  it  is  to  hear  them  announced  by  the  Peasant 
of  Galilee — by  this  Mechanic — laboring  among  the  working  men  of 
his  time  !  Jesus,  standing  and  looking  on  the  toilers  of  the  sea  (of 
the  Lake  of  Gennesaret),  and  surrounded  by  the  crowds  of  working 
people,  in  this  matchless  discourse,  announced  principle  after  princi- 
ple, with  all  the  brevity  of  an  axiom,  and  in  parabolic  forms,  which 
for  tAvo  thousand  years  the  world  has  been  slowly  finding  out  to  be 
true.  Whence  came  this  wisdom  that  anteceded  experience  ?  Whence 
came  this  regency  of  mind  that  overlooked  the  lives  of  men  and  the 
courses  of  time  ?  To  me  he  was  not  a  peasant,  but  it  was  only  a 
peasant  form  that  he  wore.  To  me  he  was  not  a  genius  of  moral 
ideas,  but  the  Author  of  them — the  Father  of  thought,  and  the  Fa- 
ther of  history,  clothed  with  the  flesh,  that  he  might  know  his  own 
liouschold,  or  that  they  might  learn  to  know  him.  He  stood  there — 
he  that  from  his  glorious  estate  in  heaven  had  bowed  himself  down 
to  dwell  among  men,  that  he  might  save  them;  and  from  his  lips- 
how  fitly  fall  these  maxims  that  have  created  the  world  and  its  pros- 
perity, and  that  Avill  yet  bring  the  world  to  its  millennial  glory  ! 

Men  and  brethren,  let  us  take  heed  to  these  teachings  of  God's 
providence,  to  these  teachings  of  God's  word,  and  to  our  own  expe- 
rience in  them.  Whatever  else  we  give  up,  let  us  hold  steadfastly 
to  our  faith  in  that  providential  government  which  supervises  all  our 
ways ;  to  our  faith  that  the  laws  on  our  side  are  those  that  will 
lead  us  highest  and  nearest  to  God  j  to  our  faith  that  if  we  "  seek 


130  SPBCIAL  DIVINE  PEOVIBENCE. 

first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,"  we  shall  be  in  the 
line  of  that  providence  which  makes  up  the  deficiencies  of  our  mortal 
reason,  which  guides  our  weak  will,  which  guards  us,  and  which  will 
finally  save  us. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  adore  thee,  thou  that  art  highest  and  best,  our  God  and  our  Father. 
We  adore  thee  for  what  thou  hast  manifested  thyself  to  be— for  all  the  glory 
whic-h  thou  hast  shed  abroad  upon  the  earth ;  for  all  the  mercy  which  thou 
hast  vouchsafed  to  man;  for  the  revelation  of  thyself  in  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ;  for  all  the  truth  which  has  come  from  him,  and  by 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  been  brought  home  to  us.  We  rejoice  in  thy  gov- 
ernment. Thy  laws  are  holy,  and  just,  and  good.  There  is  peace  in  pursu- 
ing the  paths  of  righteousness.  We  rejoice  in  our  experience  of  thy  good- 
ness. How  much  should  we  rehearse  the  story  of  our  life !  What  argument 
of  trust  and  gratitude  there  is  in  it !  We  rejoice  that  we  were  reared  under 
Christian  auspices,  and  from  our  earliest  life  taught  the  things  which  per- 
tain to  salvaticKn.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  granted  unto  us  so  much 
of  the  joys  of  life,  and  that  sorrows  have  been  ministered  unto  us  merci- 
fully, and  that  thou  hast  made  them  to  be  a  discipline,  and  not  a  destruc- 
tion. We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  drawn  us  together  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Gospel,  and  that  we  have  so  many  hopes  in  common,  so  much  of  the 
life  that  now  is,  irradiated  by  the  life  which  is  to  come. 

We  rejoice  in  all  the  mercies  which  thou  hast  vouchsafed  to  us  in  the 
household— its  sweet  affections,  and  all  its  blessed  light.  And  we  beseech 
of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God !  that  since  thou  ha.st  sustained  us  thus  far,  our  cup 
running  over,  our  lines  falling  in  pleasant  places,  our  feet  in  green  pastures, 
and  by  the  side  of  still  waters,  we  may  learn  from  all  the  past,  more  than 
ever  to  rest  in  thy  word ;  to  lean  wholly  upon  thy  promises,  to  walk  securely 
and  safely  and  restfully  in  the  way  of  duty.  Why  should  we  be  disturbed 
with  care,  with  pain,  or  with  burdens?  Why  should  we,  over  whose  head 
spriugs  the  arch  of  our  Father's  house,  act  as  slaves,  and  look  up  affriglited, 
or  bow  down  drudged?  Art  thou  not  our  Lover  and  our  Friend  ?  And  \Yhen 
thou  judgest,  is  it  uot  love?  And  when  thou  dost  smite,  is  it  not  still  the 
Father's  hand  ?  And  is  not  all  our  life  a  varied  experience  of  the  l^lesseduess 
of  thy  government  for  our  soul's  good.  Grant  that  we  may  more  and  more 
treat  thee  as  children,  sijice  we  are  treated  by  thee  as  a  Father.  Aud  we 
pray  more  and  more  that  the  life  that  is  in  us  may  abound  in  things  right 
and  true  and  good.    May  we  seek  to  please  thee  above  all  others. 

And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  every  onein  thy  presence  may  be  led  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ.  May  there  be  awakened  in  every 
one  a  spiritual  insight.  May  every  one  that  has  never  before  known  faith, 
have  the  beginnings  of  that  life  which  comes  by  faith  and  by  love. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  those  who  have  long  walked  in  Chris- 
tian experience,  that  those  who  have  been  soldiers  in  thine  army,  may  be 
true  to  the  end.  It  is  but  a  few  days  for  many.  If  in  patience  they  possess 
their  souls,  all  their  conflicts  will  be  over  ere  long,  aud  then  there  will  be 
no  more  storms  for  them.  Brighter  and  brighter  shines  the  east.  Grant, 
we  pi  ay  thee;  that  they  may  have  strength  to  walk  to  the  end  of  life  in  an 
affectionate  trust  in  that  Redeemer  who  never  has  left  them  nor  forsaken 
them. 


SPECIAL  DIVINE  FRO  VIBENCE.  131 

We  pray  that  those  who  are  hearing  the  burden  and  the  heat  of  the  day- 
may  be  strengthened  so  as  that  they  shall  fulfill  all  their  duties  as  becomes 
the  children  of  God.  May  they  remember  their  vocation.  May  they  remem- 
ber the  honor  and  the  dignity  which  thou  hast  put  upon  them.  May  they 
not  dishonor  their  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  those  that  are  beginning  the  Christian 
life,  inexperienced,  full  of  mistakes,  full  of  alternations  of  feeling,  may  know 
the  love  of  Christ  to  their  souls,  which  overcame  their  selfishness ;  which 
called  them  when  they  were  afar  off;  which  has  been  beforehand  with 
them. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  they  may  never  distrust  the  nourishing  love 
of  God.  And  may  they  feel  that  they  are  strong,  not  in  themselves,  not  in 
their  own  will,  not  in  the  means  with  which  they  surround  themselves, 
but  in  tlie  Lord  that  loved  them  and  redeemed  them,  giving  his  own  pre- 
cious life  for  them.    In  Him  may  they  be  strong. 

We  pray  for  those  who  mourn  over  their  easily  besetting  sins ;  who  fall 
so  often  ;  who  come  back  so  slowly ;  to  whom  the  yoke  is  yet  a  yoke ;  and  to 
whom  the  burden  is  very  heavy.  Wilt  thou  deliver  them.  May  they  not 
parley  with  the  things  that  are  behind.  May  they  not  look  back,  even.  May 
they  press  forward,  forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  toward  the 
mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  be  near  to  those  who  long  and  hesitat- 
ingly have  been  looking  wistfully  toward  the  better  life,  and  have  not  en- 
tered upon  it.  Oh !  draw  them.  Bring  them  back  to  the  right  way— to  the 
way  of  holiness;  to  the  way  by  which  they  shall  walk  heavenward,  more 
and  more  dispossessing  sin  and  selfishness.  Grant  that  they  may  enter  upon 
the  royal  way,  and  that  they  too,  may  become  servants  of  the  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ. 

We  pray  for  those  that  are  thralled  in  sin.  We  pray  for  those  that  are 
bowed  down  and  are  slaves  of  Satan.  We  pray  for  those  that  are  in  the 
darkness  of  doubt.    "W  e  pray  for  all  that  suffer  through  uncertainty. 

We  beseech  of  thee  to  remember  those  that  do  not  remember  thee.  We 
pray  for  the  prayerless.  We  pray  for  those  who  have  no  longer  any  on 
earth  to  pray  for  them.  We  pray  for  those  who  have  forgotten  their  lather 
and  their  mother,  who  are  in  glory,  and  their  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  and 
who  is  greater  than  all. 

We  pray  for  the  poor;  for  the  outcast;  for  those  that  are  in  vice,  and 
neglected  therein ;  for  all  criminals ;  for  all  that  are  guilty ;  for  those  that 
are  in  prison.  Bless  those  that  carry  to  them  the  word  of  truth,  and  cast  a 
better  light  of  consolation  upon  their  iiath.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  as 
they  come  in  the  name  of  Christ,  they  may  bear  the  Spirit  and  the  love  of 
Christ.    And  may  many  be  snatched  as  brands  from  the  burning. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  those  who  are  seeking  to  build 
up  the  cause  of  temperance,  and  to  promote  morality  in  those  that  are  cast 
down  by  their  passions.    May  they  be  strong  in  word  and  in  deed. 

We  pray  for  the  reformation  of  morals  throughout  these  great  cities,  and 
in  all  our  land.  And  revive  thy  work,  we  pray  thee,  in  all  our  churches. 
May  the  truth  be  more  and  more  powerful.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that 
justice  and  equity  may  everywhere  prevail.  Turn  and  overturn  till  He 
whose  right  it  is  shall  come  and  reign.  Fulfill  those  promises  which  long 
have  hung  unripening.  At  last,  may  they  begin  to  drop  down  their  fruit. 
We  pray  for  that  glorious  day  when  men  shall  learn  war  and  violence  no 
more;  when  they  shall  torment  and  beat  each  other  down  no  more ;  when 
peace  shall  be  universal ;  and  wheii  purity  and  truth  and  justice  shall  rule 
in  all  the  earth.    Even  so.  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  everlasting.— 
Amen. 


132  SFECIAL  DIVINE  FBOVIDENCE, 

PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  heavenly  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  all  the  monitions  of  thy  word. 
We  thank  thee  for  all  the  examples  which  it  records.  We  thank  thee  for  all 
the  truth  which  has  through  after  ages  come  forth  to  corroborate  thy  divine 
annunciations.  May  we  not  seek  the  flesh.  May  we  not  seek  the  things 
that  perish  in  the  using.  May  we  not  seek  that  specious  and  glittering  pros- 
perity -which  is  as  the  frost-pictures  of  winter  which  perish  almost  by  the 
breath  of  him  that  looks  upon  them.  May  we  lay  up  our  treasure  in  heaven. 
May  we  send  holy  thoughts  there  for  investment.  May  our  hearts  follow 
there  those  whom  they  have  loved.  May  we  twine  our  aifection  around 
about  them.  O,  Lord  of  our  salvation,  there  may  we  have  more  expecta- 
tion, more  hope,  more  desire,  more  that  waits  for  our  coming,  than  any- 
where else.  And  as  we  are  growing  old,  and  the  years  that  are  before  us 
are  fewer  than  those  which  are  behind  us,  grant  that  we  may  more  earnestly 
take  hold  of  these  great  verities.  And  may  we  live  so  convoyed,  protected, 
comforted,  and  blessed  of  thy  Spirit,  that  when  we  depart  we  shall  pass 
from  glory  to  glory,  and  be  forever  with  the  Lord. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  be  praise  forever- 
more.    Amen , 


VII. 

The  Law  of  Benevolence. 


Eternal  Father,  thou  who  dost  never  forget,  who  sliimberest  not,  and  who 
with  infinite  love  dost  watch  over  all  that  are  thine  own,  through  all  thy 
boundless  universe,  we  come  weak,  needy,  utterly  dependent  upon  thee, 
even  for  the  power  and  the  skill  with  which  we  help  ourselves.  And  this 
morning  we  draw  near,  not  according  to  our  merit,  nor  even  according  to 
our  knowledge  of  our  own  want,  but  that  thou  wilt  out  of  the  measure  of 
thy  wisdom  and  thy  goodness  bestow  upon  us,  this  day,  the  blessings  of 
thy  presence  and  of  thy  Spirit.  Grant  that  all  that  shall  make  us  nobler  in 
manhood  aud  more  truly  like  the  Master,  may  be  imparted  unto  t*,  and  may 
we  commune  together  in  fellowship  and  friendship.  May  we  walK  together 
in  the  way  of  instruction.  May  we  have  fellowship  of  joy  and  praise  in 
singing  to  thee.  Miy  we  rejoice  in  communion.  And  may  all  the  .services 
of  the  sanctuary  be  precious  to  us.  M.iy  we  bear  the  light  aud  the  warmth 
of  it  home,  that  our  very  houses  may  become  temples  of  God.  Which  we 
ask  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 


THE  LA¥  OF  BENEVOLENCE. 


'*  As -we  hare  therefore  opportunity,  let  us  do  good  unto  all  men,  es- 
pecially unto  them  who  are  of  the  household  of  faith."— Gal.  vi.,  10. 


This  is  only  a  special  application  of  the  great  law  of  benevolence 
as  it  was  interpreted  by  the  Master,  and  which  he  represented  to  be 
the  center  and  substance  of  religion,  its  animating  spirit,  as  devel- 
oped under  the  auspices  of  the  old  dispensation,  and  certainly  the 
inspiring  element  of  religion  as  to  be  developed  still  further  under 
the  auspices  of  his  own  spiritual  kingdom.  Do  good  to  all  men — 
that  is  the  comprehensive  law. 

1.  This  doing  good  is  an  exceedingly  wide  thing.  It  may  be, 
and  in  its  highest  form  it  is,  conferring  spiritual  good, — so  ad- 
dressing yourself  to  men  that  they  become  wiser,  purer,  more  just, 
more  truly  inspired  with  the  whole  spirit  of  Christian  love  and 
kindness.  We  are  to  lose  no  jjroper  ojjportunity  to  inspire  men  with 
religious  growth,  distinctively  so  called. 

But  it  includes,  also,  all  other  forms  of  doing  good.  It  includes 
all  activity  in  the  direction  of  material  assistance.  "We  are  to  do 
good  to  all  men  in  their  political  relations  as  members  of  the  State. 
We  are  to  do  good  by  public  spirit,  which  is  only  another  inflection 
of  the  general  feeling  of  benevolence  as  applied  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  We  are  to  seek  to  do  good  to  all  men  in  these 
various  ways. 

As  men  are  largely  dependent  for  their  culture  upon  that 
abundance  out  of  which  grows  leisure  for  higher  inspirations,  so 
doing  good  to  men  in  this  general  formula  includes  all  benefits  con- 
fen-ed  of  a  commercial  and  business-like  character.  And  all  ma- 
terial assistance,  whether  it  be  helpfulness,  whether  it  be  advice,  ' 
whetlier  it  be  the  actual  lending  of  your  strength,  your  time,  or 
your  means,  is  likewise  included. 

But  there  is  even  a  wider  sphere  of  doing  good  than  this.  It  is, 
in  its  most  compreliensive  form,  such  a  carriage  of  your  Avhole  life 
and  disposition  and  nature  as  shall  make  men  feel  hapj^ier  and  bet- 

SuNDAY  MonNiNQ,  April  23,  1871.   Lesson:  Rom.  XII.      Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Kos.  19y,  810, 1061. 


136  THE  LA  W  OF  BBNE  VOLENCE. 

ter  wherever  you  go.  A  man  is  himself  a  university  of  influences. 
He  has  his  reason,  his  religious  side,  his  social  nature,  his  economic 
element,  his  whole  material  and  physical  organization ;  and  the  com- 
mand is  to  so  carry  one's  whole  self  throughout,  that  the  influence 
of  a  man's  living,  and  of  his  whole  presence  shall  be  to  confer  hap- 
piness, prosperity  and  joy  upon  men — not  only  to  make  them  better, 
but  to  make  i\\QVQ.feel  better.  As  it  is  specified  in  another  place,  we 
are  to  please  men  to  edification — that  is,  to  build  them  up.  We 
are  to  please  them  in  su^ch  things  as  will  make  them  better. 

This  does  not  exclude  pain-giving.  It  is  not  to  be  that  kind  of 
goodness  which  deals  only  with  lenity  and  with  gentleness  ;  because 
goodness  sometimes  requires  sternness  and  justice,  and  even  the  in- 
fliction of  suffering.  But  it  is  never  vengeful.  It  is  never  to  be 
giving  pain  for  the  sake  of  giving  pain.  It  is  to  be  a  ministration 
of  love,  such  as  a  man  has  at  the  hand  of  a  surgeon,  a  physician,  a 
teacher,  a  parent.  The  malign  disposition,  which  is  one  that  loves 
pain  for  the  sake  of  pain,  is  never  to  be  a  part  of  Christian  nurture 
or  Christian  ethics  ;  but  whatever  men  do,  in  the  whole  round  of 
their  life,  is  to  be  done  for  the  sake  of  making  men  better  and  hap- 
pier around  about  them. 

2.  We  are  to  do  this,  the  Apostle  says,  as  we  have  opportunity — 
which  would  seem  to  be  a  caution  against  partitioning  off"  a  man's 
time  officially,  and  giving  certain  days  to  doing  good,  and  all  tie 
rest  of  the  time  to  doing  what  you  have  a  mind  to.  There  are  men 
who  feel  the  obligation  of  doing  good  on  Sunday  ;  there  are  those 
who,  though  they  do  not  think,  in  their  business  relations  or  in  their 
oflicial  relations  that  they  are  particularly  bound  to  do  good  any 
further  than  to  keep  within  the  limits  of  custom  and  law,  yet  feel 
that  when  certain  days  come  round — Christmas-days,  and  Thanks- 
giving-days, and  various  festal  days — Lhey  are  bound  to  do  good. 
They  feel  that  on  such  days  as  these,  when  a  decent  public  senti- 
ment requires  that  everybody  should  be  happy  and  should  exchange 
tokens  of  happiness,  they  must  do  something.  But  the  apostle 
says,  as  it  were,  "  Not  only  then,  but  always ;  whenever  you 
have  a  chance ;  in  season  and  out  of  season."  That  is  to  say, 
we  are  to  do  good  at  regular  periods  and  in  regular  methods, 
not  only,  but  in  irregular  methods  and  at  irregular  periods.  We 
are  to  do  good  at  unexpected  times.  Whenever  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity— that  is  the  time  for  a  man  to  do  good  to  his  fellow-men. 

Sometimes  men  are  to  make  opportunities  ;  but  if  one  be  pos- 
sessed of  a  right  sensibility,  and  of  a  true  benevolence,  opportunities 
will  be  suggested  by  that  sensibility ;  and  his  desire  to  do  good 
will  break  out  in  such  ways  as  to  find  a  thousand  opportunities 


THJE  LA  W  OF  BUNIJ  VOL  EN  GE.  137 

which  the  mere  cold  waiter  and  watcher  never  finds.  Only  a  full 
heart  can  always  be  ready  to  fill  up  these  fugitive  opportunities- 
For  if  one  be  happy  himself  only  when  some  unexpected  stroke  of 
good  luck  has  come  to  him,  it  is  but  occasionally  that  he  is  in  a  con- 
dition to  make  others  happy  If,  when  you  are  joyous  by  reason 
of  some  fortunate  occurrence  connected  with  yourself,  you  go  forth 
into  the  street,  how  many  more  words  you  feel  disposed  to  say,  how 
many  more  kind  things  you  feel  disposed  to  do,  how  many  more 
opportunities  for  doing  good  present  themselves  to  you,  than  is  or- 
dinarily the  case  !  If  a  man  is  at  peace  with  himself,  and  full  of 
gladness,  how  many  opportunities  he  finds  for  doing  good  !  whereas, 
if  there  come  the  cold  wind  of  trouble  upon  him,  and  he  be  shut  up 
in  the  chilling  consciousness  of  his  own  loss  or  want,  how  little  he 
sees  of  good  that  he  is  impelled  to  do  !  How  few  chances  come  to 
nis  notice  for  the  exercise  of  benevolence  !  How  few  people  he 
meets  that  he  wants  to  speak  to  !  How  seldom  it  is  that  his  desire 
to  do  good  is  awakened  ! 

Opportunities,  in  other  words,  may  sometimes  be  said  to  be  but 
the  opening  of  the  gates  of  a  man's  own  benevolence.  He  always 
has  opportunities  enough  who  has  fullness  of  sympathy  enough  ; 
who  has  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  large  enough  ;  who  has  a  true 
love  of  making  happiness. 

As  we  ham  opportunity  is  not  simply,  then,  the  antithesis  of 
official  doing  good,  or  doing  good  at  stated  seasons.  It  indicates 
that  we  are  to  make  doing  good  the  very  atmosphere  and  business 
of  our  whole  religious  life.  There  are  opportunities  which  come 
but  once  in  a  man's  life-time.  Others  come  ;  they  are  thick  ;  but 
there  are  things  which  a  man  can  do  once,  and  never  can  do  again. 
In  the  Spring  the  furrow  lies  open,  and  the  farmer  puts  in  his  seed  ; 
but  if  that  season  goes  by  and  he  does  not  put  in  his  seed,  the 
opportunity  is  lost.  And  so,  many  furrows  are  opened  in  which 
men  may  sow  seed  once  in  their  lifetime,  which  seed,  if  it  be  sown, 
shall  spring  up  and  be  most  beautiful  in  blossom  and  fruit  ;  but  if 
they  neglect  to  put  seed  in  those  open  furrows,  the  opportunity 
will  not  come  to  them  again  so  long  as  they  live.  Other  furrows 
will  open,  and  they  will  have  certain  chances  for  doing  good  ;  but 
that  chance  will  never  present  itself  again.  And  so  there  must  be 
an  alertness  and  enterprise  and  watchfulness,  and  above  all  a  fullness 
of  benevolent  disposition,  that  shall  always  be  pressing  and  pressing 
to  find  opportunities,  and  to  develop  itself. 

3.  We  are  to  do  good  to  all. 
"  As  we  have  opportunity  let  ua  do  good  to  all  men." 

The  Saviour  says  : 


138  TEE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

"  If  ye  love  them  which  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye  ?  do  not  even 
the  publicans  the  same  ?  And  if  ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye 
more  than  others  ?  do  not  even  the  publicans  so  V ' 

All  the  world  has  been  accustomed  to  teach  that  men  shovild  do 
good  to  their  own  household.  He  that  neglects  his  own  household  is 
an  infidel.  In  almost  all  nations,  in  nations  of  almost  all  shades  of 
development — even  those  that  are  quite  low  down  in  the  scale, 
toward  barbarism — there  is  an  impulse  to  do  good  to  those  next  to 
them.  And  not  only  are  we  to  do  good  to  our  own  selves,  but  we 
are  to  do  good  to  those  that  are  within  our  own  households.  Fre- 
quently benevolence  does  not  act  in  the  household  at  all.  Affection 
acts  there  ;  and  if  that  be  small,  or  extinguished,  there  is  little  or 
nothing  else  that  can  supply  its  place.  And  so,  many  a  household 
is  without  either  aflection  or  benevolence.  The  love-principle  there 
is  too  small  for  a  generic,  and  is  famine-stricken  in  the  specific. 
Hence,  there  are  many  households  which  are  simply  arenas  of  petty 
strife.  Oftentimes  there  is  no  place  more  malignant,  more  bitter, 
more  provocative  of  that  which  is  bad.  Oftentimes  there  is  no  place 
so  little  like  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  so  much  like  the  gate  of  hell. 

We  are  to  do  good  to  all  men  ;  and,  naturally,  doing  good 
begins  in  the  household.  Every  right-minded  man,  every  true  man, 
should  exert  all  his  power  to  make  that  place  where  he  dwells  a 
bright,  central  point,  glowing  with  kindly  feeling,  with  real  enjoy- 
ment, with  inspiration  and  with  happiness.  The  man  that  does  not 
make  those  who  live  in  his  own  house  with  him  happy,  has  great 
reason  to  suspect,  I  will  not  say  his  Christianity,  but  his  manhood. 
He  may  plead  that  he  is  an  invalid .  but  that  plea,  while  it  extenu- 
ates, does  not  excuse.  A  man  should  see  to  it  that  where  he  is, 
there  always  is  most  enjoyment.  Begin  at  home  ;  and  do  not 
stop  at  home. 

We  are  not  to  confine  the  doing  of  good  to  our  own  household, 
iior  to  our  own  neighborhood,  nor  even  to  our  own  nation.  We 
have  a  very  kindly  feeling  toward  all  those  that  are  of  our  sort.  We 
are  very  benevolent  toward  those  that  are  born  with  us — that  ai'e 
of  the  same  state,  or  of  the  same  nation.  We  are,  however,  a  nation 
that  is  overrun  with  persons  who  were  .orn  abroad ;  and  we  very 
naturally  tend  to  cherish  the  race  prejudices.  Foreigners,  emi- 
grants, the  Irish,  the  Germans,  the  Africans — we  naturally  feel  that 
there  is  a  great  distinction  between  them  and  us.  We  acknowledge, 
to  be  sure,  that  there  should  be  humanity  in  our  treatment  of 
them  :  but  there  is  a  seam  in  the  garment  of  our  charity ;  there 
is  a  strong  welt  that  runs  across  it ;  we  feel  that  we  are  bound  by 
bands  that  run  closer,  and  we  respond  more  generously  toward 
those  that  are  of  own  blood  and  lineage.     But  if  there  was  any  one 


TEE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE.  139 

thing  that  characterized  the  Gospel,  it  was  that  it  was  universal ; 
that  it  made  no  distinction  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  between  bond 
and  free,  between  high  and  low.  Christ  died  for  the  world  ;  and 
the  spirit  of  benevolence  is  to  be  commensurate  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Master  who  gave  himself  for  all. 

Nor  are  we  to  confine  the  doing  of  good  even  so  narrowly  as 
this.  We  must  see  to  it  that  we  do  not  have  the  feeling  of  brother- 
hood merely  with  regard  to  nationality.  We  must  not  allow  race- 
stock  to  come  in.  It  is  very  hard  to  get  over  this,  especially  in 
California,  where  a  man  thinks  that  he  is  bound  to  have  a  brotherly 
feeling  toward  everybody  that  is  not  Chinese.  We  feel  bound  to  have 
brotherly  feelings  toward  those  that  speak  the  same  language  that 
we  do ;  toward  those  that  believe  in  the  same  religion ;  toward  those 
that  are  brought  up  with  the  same  political  ideas ;  but  toward  out- 
casts, the  imported  heathen  that  come  from  Oriental  or  tropical 
lands,  and  that  are  thrown  in  among  us  Avithout  being  grafted  on  to 
us — toward  these  we  have  almost  any  other  feeling  than  that  of 
brotherhood.  It  is  very  hard  to  feel  brotherhood  toward  a  man 
that  is  worshiping  an  idol,  and  that  wears  his  hair  in  a  queue,  and 
that  has  almond-shaped  eyes,  and  a  complexion  ranging  from  copper 
to  black.  It  is  hard  to  call  ourselves  brothers  of  men  that  bear  dis- 
tasteful lineaments  and  features.  Nevertheless  that  is  the  mission 
and  message  of  true  Christianity. 

"  As  we  have  opportunity  let  us  do  good  to  all  men." 

It  does  not  mean,  necessarily,  that  I  am  to  choose  my  com- 
panions, or  to  make  my  intimates  of  all  classes  of  men.  I  am  not 
bound  to  form  my  intimacies  on  any  principle  but  that  of  likeness 
or  agreeable  differences.  I  am  at  liberty  to  select  for  my  household 
or  for  my  private  companionship,  those  that  are  congenial  to  me. 
But  the  great  race  of  mankind,  Avitliout  distinction,  are  to  be  to  me 
in  such  a  sense  brothers  as  that  they  shall  have  the  warmest  sym- 
pathy and  the  greatest  helpfulness  that  I  have  the  opportunity  to 
confer  ui)on  them.  Love,  not  prejudice — it  is  that  which  sliould  in- 
terpret duty  to  all  men,  of  every  nation,  and  of  every  race-stock.  A 
universal  brotherhood  is  to  be  established.  All  mankind  are  to  be 
regarded  as  objects  of  the  divine  beneficence;  and  therefore  all  our 
sympathy  should  go  out  toward  all  for  whom  the  cross  was  raised ; 
toward  all  for  whom  God  thinks ;  toward  all  upon  whom  he  sends 
his  sun  and  the  seasons.  All  that  lie  calls  children  we  are  to  call 
brethren.  And  we  are  not  to  allow  our  benevolence  to  be  ribbed 
with  prejudice  and  to  be  compressed  in  narrow  channels  flowing 
only  here  and  there  in  exiguous  streams.  We  are  to  have  a  laro-e 
heart,  and  a  large  benevolence  in  it ;  and  we  are  to  let  that  flow 


140  TEE  LAW  OF  BENEVOLENCE.      , 

out  toward  every  human  being  that  has  the  capacity  to  enjoy  or 
to  suffer. 

4.  We  are  to  do  good  as  we  have  opportunity,  especially  to 
ward  those  that  are  of  the  household  of  faith.  At  that  time  those 
that  drew  themselves  out  from  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and  were 
brought  into  the  communion  of  Christian  brotherhood,  either  be- 
came poor,  or  came  to  such  a  condition  that  they  shut  themselves  off 
from  the  sympathy  of  their  connections.  It  is  still  so  in  many  coun- 
tries where,  under  the  influence  of  Christian  missions,  churches  are 
formed ;  where  the  principle  of  caste  exists;  where  to  receive  Christ 
is  to  give  up  everything  that  is  dear.  And  in  the  olden  time,  when 
men  became  Christians  it  was  an  argument  for  stinginess  towards 
them,  and  selfishness,  and  hatred,  and  persecution;  and  the  open 
hand  was  shut  up,  and  the  flowing  store  ceased.  Therefore  it  was 
that  those  who  came  into  the  Christian  church  had  special  need  of 
supporting  assistance.  That  was  the  reason  why  the  apostle  said, 
Let  us  do  good,  especially  unto  those  who  are  of  the  household  of 
faith. 

Every  one,  entering  a  church,  has  a  right  to  feel  that  he  is  going 
into  a  higher  atmosphere  than  that  in  which  he  has  been  accustomed 
to  move.  Every  one  has  a  right  to  feel  that  when  he  goes  into  the 
church  of  Christ  he  goes  into  an  association,  a  brotherhood,  where 
the  principle  of  gentleness  and  kindness  is  carried  to  a  higher  degree 
than  it  is  outside  of  the  church.  I  know  that  it  is  not  so.  I  know 
that  the  church  is  keyed,  often,  very  low  in  the  matter  of  sympathy. 
I  know  that  formality,  and  separations  into  classes,  and  divisions  by 
a  great  many  worldly  distinctions,  break  up  the  sense  of  brother- 
hood, I  know  that  too  frequently  j^ersons  who  go  into  the  church 
are  like  those  who  go  at  night  to  a  hotel.  Each  lodger  has  his  own 
room,  and  calls  for  what  he  himself  needs,  and  does  not  feel  bound 
to  take  care  of  any  of  the  other  lodgers.  And  a  church,  frequently, 
is  nothing  but  a  spiritual  boarding-house,  where  the  members  are 
not  acquainted  with  each  other,  and  where  there  is  but  very  little 
sympathy. 

Now,  every  church  should  be  under  the  insf)iration  of  such  large 
sympathy  and  benevolence  as  to  make  every  one  of  its  members  the 
object  of  kindly  thought  and  feeling.  There  should  be  a  public  sen- 
timent and  an  atmosphere  of  brotherhood  in  every  church.  There 
is  no  objection  in  a  church  to  individuality.  We  do  not  undertake 
to  break  uj)  all  these  natural  and  most  harmless  separations  or  clas- 
sifications which  socially  exist  outside  of  the  church.  I  hold  that 
class,  if  it  be  heatlien,  is  devilish,  but  that  it  does  not  need  to  be 
heathen.     I  hold  that  a  man  may  belong  to  a  class,  in  the  church,  or 


THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  YOLENGE.  141 

out  of  the  church,  and  yet  be  as  full  of  sympathy,  yea,  more  sym- 
pathetic, than  he  otherwise  would  be — so  much  so  that  he  feels  an 
obligation  of  beneficence  toward  those  that  are  less  favored.  But  no 
church  is  a  church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  which  there  is  such 
an  introduction  of  the  separations  of  the  world — those  which  pride 
courts,  and  those  which  vanity  foments ;  in  which  there  is  such  a 
spirit  of  seclusion  or  separateness  that  persons  coming  into  it  are 
chilled,  and  feel  desolate  and  without  companionship.  It  is  impos- 
sible, perhaps,  in  a  church,  for  each  member  to  know  every  other 
member ;  but  there  is  siich  a  thing  as  a  public  sentiment,  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  an  atmosphere,  in  a  church.  And  it  is  this  atmosphere, 
or  public  sentiment,  pervading  the  whole  membership  of  a  church, 
that  is,  or  will  be,  more  influential  in  promoting  the  work  of  relig- 
ion, than  any  ability  in  eloquence,  or  any  art  in  beauty.  I  do  not 
object  to  architecture.  I  do  not  object  to  music,  so  that  it  does  not 
forsake  the  true  mission  of  music,  which  is  to  express  deep  religious 
feeling.  I  do  not  object  to  any  expression  of  art  in  feeling;  for  art 
without  feeling  is  a  sham;  and  feeling  without  art  may  be  vulgar. 
The  highest  mission  of  art  is  to  express  the  deepest  feeling  in  the 
fittest  way.  I  do  not  object  to  art  in  architecture  and  in  decoration, 
so  that  it  is  in  harmony  with  right  feeling.  You  may  paint  your 
windows  and  fresco  your  walls,  or  not,  as  you  please.  It  is  not  par- 
ticularly essential  either  way.  Art  does  no  harm  unless  it  leads 
persons  to  fall  more  easily  into  the  idolatry  of  the  external.  That 
is  to  be  watched  against.  But  the  thing  which,  above  all  others,  is 
essential,  is  that  there  shall  be  a  symj^athy  and  genuine  feeling  of 
brotherhood  in  a  church.  More  than  windows,  more  than  ceiling, 
more  than  architecture,  more  than  music,  more  than  the  pulpit  itself, 
in  attraction,  should  be  the  genial  atmosphere  of  the  whole  society 
and  of  the  whole  brotherhood.  That  is  what  men  feel,  even  when 
they  cannot  tell  what  it  is  that  afiects  them.  That  is  what  makes 
men,  frequently,  desire  to  go  to  certain  congregations,  even  when 
the  reason  why  is  beyond  the  explanation  of  their  reason. 

In  this  congregation,  although  we  are  far  from  being  perfect,  al- 
though there  is  much  room  for  us  to  grow  yet,  I  think  there  is  a 
hospitable  feeling.  I  think  there  is  here,  to  a  great  degree,  a  genial 
feeling.  And  I  think  that  one  of  the  secrets  of  the  attractiveness  of 
this  church  is  not  so  much  this  or  that  or  the  other  influence  in  its 
ministrations,  as  its  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  sympathy  and  gener- 
osity and  kindness,  which  in  the  main  exists,  and  which  constitutes 
a  feature  of  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole  society. 

If  the  church  on  earth  were  full  of  happiness-makers,  there  would 
te  no  need  of  further  argument  for  religion.     Keligiou  in  its  love- 


142  THB  LA  W  OF  BENEVOLENCE. 

form  is  the  best  argument  for  itself.  No  man  wishes  to  deny  it. 
No  man  can  doubt  a  fact  that  exists  continually  before  him.  There 
would  not  need  to  be  any  argument  to  prove  that  an  orchard  was 
beautiful  when  its  trees  were  full  of  fruit.  There  would  be  no  need 
of  an  argument  to  prove  that  a  vine  was  fragrant  in  May,  or  that  it 
was  fruitful  in  October.  No  one  with  a  cluster  of  grapes  in  his  hands 
needs  to  be  persuaded  that  the  fruit  is  luscious.  The  thing  itself  is 
its  own  expounder  and  interpreter.  "  By  their  fruit  ye  shall  know 
them  " — blossom  and  fruit  and  all. 

Cold  and  dead  churches,  churches  that  are  receptacles  only  as 
sepiilchers  are ;  churches  whose  members  rattle  in  them  almost  as 
the  dry  bones  do  in  the  coffins  of  the  charnel-house — those  are  ar- 
guments of  infidelity ;  and  no  argument  to  pi'ove  Christianity  can 
be  of  much  validity  where  the  church  is  hard,  or  cold,  or  dead.  And 
no  matter  how  philosophical,  and  skeptical  even,  a  man  may  be,  if 
the  church  clothes  all  its  members  with  the  true  spirit  of  love,  and 
they  are  full  to  overflowing  with  kindness,  and  the  whole  church  is 
is  developed  in  the  majesty  and  power  of  omnipotent  and  omni- 
\  .  present  love,  that  disarms  all  criticism,  and  takes  away  all  possi- 
bility  of  doubt.  No  man  ever  yet  needed  an  argument  to  prove 
that  light  was  light,  and  that  it  was  agreeable.  Ye  are  the  light  of 
the  world.  No  man  needs  an  argument  to  prove  tliat  fruit  is  good. 
Ye  are  vines.     Ye  bri?ig  forth  fruit  to  the  glory  of  the  Father. 

We  are,  then,  to  do  good  to  all  men — especially  to  those  that  are 
of  the  household  of  faith.  We  are  to  see  to  it  that  the  spirit  of 
sympathy  and  benevolence  makes  the  church  the  brightest  place  on 
earth,  where  many  diiferent  kinds  of  people  are  connected  together. 

But  then,  this  passage  has  been  interpreted  for  exactly  the  oppo- 
site thing.  Not  only  has  it  been  taught  that  we  ought  to  take  care 
of  our  own  members,  but  it  has  been  extensively  taught  that  we 
ought  to  patronize  them.  I  have  no  objection  to  persons  patron- 
izing those  that  are  in  the  same  church  with  them,  provided  all  other 
things  are  fittest ;  but  that  a  Methodist  should  trade  with  nobody 
but  a  Methodist,  and  vote  for  nobody  but  a  Methodist ;  that  a  Pres- 
byterian should  go  out  of  his  way  to  favor  those  that  belong  to  his 
communion,  and  pass  by  those  that  belong  to  other  communions  • 
that  the  exhibition  of  all  political  and  economic  sympatliy  should 
be  limited  by  the  lines  of  sectarianism  ;  that  a  Congregational  church 
should  undertake  to  bestow  its  sympathy  only  where  there  is  Con- 
gregational orthodoxy — that  is  abhori-ent  to  the  very  spirit  of  char- 
ity. It  is  a  perversion,  in  express  terms  almost,  of  the  injunction  of 
our  text: 

"  Let  U3  do  good  unto  all  men,  especially  to  them  that  are  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith." 


THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE.  143 

Who  avo  the  household  of  faith?  All  Avho  love  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  and  in  truth.  They  may  be  of  the 
Baptist,  the  Methodist,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Episcopalian,  the 
Roman  Catholic,  or  any  other  Christian  Church.  If  men  love 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  and  in  truth,  whatever  sect 
they  may  belong  to,  they  come  within  the  sweep  of  this  command. 
Do  good  to  them  all.  Be  genial,  sympathetic,  confiding,  benev- 
olent, helpful,  in  every  way.  Do  not  let  the  outflow  of  sym^^athy 
from  your  heart  be  perverted,  nor  take  on  the  shackles  of  a 
technical  orthodoxy.  There  is  no  man  on  earth  that  you  can 
afford  to  treat  otherwise  than  kindly.  Kindness  is  fitted  to  every- 
body. It  should  be  active  and  diffusive;  and  yet  it  should  be 
so  concentrated  that  everybody  shall  feel  it.  Your  kindness  should 
be  such  that  when  a  person  comes  into  your  presence  he  shall  feel 
that  you  have  a  real  interest  in  his  welfare.  It  should  be  such  that 
when  you  meet  persons  they  shall  be  made  happier,  and  feel  that 
they  are  of  more  importance  in  the  world  than  they  ever  thought 
they  were  before. 

With  this  general  exposition,  I  pass  to  make  some  special  appli- 
cations of  it. 

First,  we  see  what  must  be  added  to  the  popular  notion  of  relig- 
ion. I  would  not  have  religion  understood  as  conveying  less  of  the 
idea  of  moral  strictness  than  it  now  does.  It  should  carry  in  it  the 
popular  notion  of  forsaking  all  sin,  and  clothing  one's  self  with  all 
virtue.  And  all  the  customs  by  which  the  experience  of  the  race 
throughout  ages  has  established  the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong,  should  be  preserved — certainly  by  those  who  belong  to  the 
Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Nor  would  I  have  religion  un- 
derstood as  conveying  the  idea  of  less  correct  beliefs.  I  would  not 
have  belief  despotic.  I  would  not  have  orthodoxy  severe  and  unre- 
lenting. Yet  the  distinction  between  truth  and  error  should  be 
preserved.  Carelessness  as  to  what  a  man  believes  can  never  be 
wholesome.  The  desire  of  knowing,  and  of  knowing  accurately  and 
truly,  is  a  noble  desire,  alike  in  the  school  of  philosophy  and  in  the 
school  of  religion.  I  would  have  churches,  therefore,  teach  distinctly 
what  men  believe.  Every  church  must  have  a  creed.  If  it  is  held 
together,  it  must  be  held  together  by  something  in  common.  And  ^ 
whatever  that  is  which  holds  it  together  in  common,  is  its  creed, 
whether  it  be  written  or  unexpressed.  And  all  those  great  influential 
lines  of  belief  by  which  the  church  separates  itself  from  the  world, 
I  would  have  it  impress  upon  all  that  are  under  its  influence. 

I  would  not  have  less  systematic  benevolence  carried  on.     There 
are  many  things  in  the  work  of  benevolence  which  can  be  abbrevi- 


1 44  THE  LA  W  OF  BENEVOLENCE. 

ated,  economized,  made  more  searching  and  more  tliorougli  by  clas- 
sification and  division  of  labor ;  and  therefore  there  onght  to  be  not 
less,  but  if  anything  more,  systematic  benevolence  in  the  church. 
But  while  these  things  are  maintained — morality  and  systematic 
organization — by  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  common, 
there  ought  to  be  more  social  sympathy  and  kindness  among  its 
members. 

This  is  the  spirit  which,  if  it  be  comparatively  speaking  low  down, 
is  on  that  very  account  naturally  interpreted  in  favor  of  religion.  It 
is  just  that  which  meets  the  wants  of  most  men. 

A  man  with  whom  the  world  has  gone  wrong ;  in  whose  house 
has  been  death ;  in  whose  business  has  been  bankruptcy ;  who  has 
fallen,  it  may  be,  from  companionship  here  and  there  ;  who  is  strug- 
gling with  accumulated  misfortunes ;  who  is  despondent ;  and  who 
right  in  the  years  of  mid-life  wishes  that  it  were  already  sundown, 
wanders  (as  one  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  very  well  remembers) 
into  the  street  seeking  the  waves ;  he  hears  singing ;  his  attention 
is  arrested  by  the  hymn ;  he  is  lifted  up,  as  it  were,  by  it  through 
the  air.  Scarcely  knowing  what  he  does,  he  follows  the  sound ;  and 
he  is  met  at  the  door  of  the  church, — not  imperiously,  not  irritably, 
not  with  a  Martinet  insistance  upon  minute  particulars,  but  kindly. 
He  is  not  shoved  hither  and  thither ;  but  a  kind  hand  is  laid  on  his 
shoulder,  and  a  gentle  voice  says  to  him,  "  Wait,  Do  not  go  away. 
As  quick  as  I  can  I  will  wait  on  you.  Step  in."  That  familiar  kind- 
ness is  strange  to  his  ear ;  and  the  hymn  still  goes  on ;  and  he  is 
drawn  within  the  house.  The  man  that  shows  him  this  courtesy 
and  kindness  does  not  know  that  he  is  saving  a  soul  from  death.  He 
takes  him  to  a  vacant  seat  far  up  toward  the  pulpit.  There  is  a 
warmth  of  genialness  in  the  congregation.  And  when  the  service 
has  been  gone  through  with,  the  truth  has  been  poured  into  an  open 
heart.  One  that  needed  consolation  has  received  it ;  and  all  thought 
of  suicide  has  flown  away,  with  the  feeling  that  inspired  it.  He  now 
turns  about  wistfully  for  sympathy.  Is  there  any  one  in  the  house 
that  will  show  him  kindness  ?  One  greets  him,  a  stranger  though 
he  be,  and  says,  "  Come  again ;  we  shall  be  glad  to  see.  you  here." 
It  was  not  much  to  say,  but  it  has  saved  a  heart  from  despair.  It  has 
opened  a  new  avenue  of  love,  and  given  birth  to  the  feeling,  "  There 
are  those  that  care  for  my  soul."  He  goes  again  at  niglit.  And 
he  goes  from  Sunday  to  Sunday.  He  goes  month  after  month.  And 
by  and  by,  through  the  grace  of  God,  he  stands  the  object  of  saving 
mercy  through  fid(;lity  and  support. 

I  tell  you,  while  the  truth  preached  does  much  good,  the  kind 
hearts  of  the  men  who  are  listening  to  the  preaching,  the  real  spirit 


.    THE  LAW  OF  BENEVOLENCE.  145 

of  brotherhood  that  draws  them  near  to  you — near  to  your  person  ; 
near  to  your  tongue  ;  near  to  your  heart ;  those  love-greetings  by 
which  men  are  made  to  feel  that  they  have  come  to  a  place  where  a 
man  is  thought  of  without  regard  td  external  trappings — these  break 
down  all  opposition,  and  preach  the  Gospel.  And  often  there  is 
much  more  Gospel  preached  at  the  door-end  of  the  church  than  at 
the  pulpit-end.  They  that  do  not  look  for  the  gloved  hand ;  they 
that  do  not  judge  by  the  apparel ;  they  that  see  in  the  face  of  a  man 
the  marks  of  care  and  trouble,'  and  perceive  that  he  needs  sympathy 
and  kindness — they  are  bearing  to  him  a  Gospel  which  he  will  under- 
stand better  than  any  exposition  or  any  doctrinal  discussion.  And 
that  kind  of  preaching  which  we  need  is  the  preaching  of  the  great 
heart  of  the  congregation  in  brotherly  sympathy  to  all  that  need 
succor. 

Men  may  spread  the  Gospel,  and  prepare  the  way  for  religion  by 
carrying  to  men  an  active  sympathy — a  brotherly  principle.  But 
there  is  discretion  to  be  used  in  preaching  to  men  on  the  subject  of 
religion.  When  persons  first  come  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  they 
are  often  exhorted  to  work  for  the  salvation  of  others.  It  is  said  to 
them,  "  Now  that  you  have  become  a  Christian  you  must  do  good." 
Instantly  they  begin  to  think,  "What  shall  I  do?"  And  one 
person  says  to  them,  "  Why  do  you  not  take  a  district  and  distribute 
tracts  ?"  Another  person  says,  "  Do  you  join  a  Sunday-School  and 
teach  a  class." 

I  am  not  mentioning  these  things  to  ridicule  them.  Often  they 
are  just  the  things  which  persons  are  benefited  by  undertakino-  • 
and  often  they  are  just  the  things  by  which  they  can  do  the  most 
good.  But  I  ridicule  the  idea  that  these  few  methods  by  which  Ave 
reach  people  are  all  the  resources  that  we  have  of  doing  good.  One 
says,  "  Do  you  mean  that  I  shall  ask  a  man  how  his  soul  does  ?" 
No,  I  do  not.  You,  little  beardless  young  fellow,  have  a  start  in 
life ;  and  the  first  man  you  meet  is  a  man  of  perhaps  ten  times  your 
stature  every  way  ;  and  you  go  and  talk  to  him,  saying,  "  How  is 
your  soul,  sir  ?"  I  do  not  mean  any  such  thing  as  that.  If  the 
man  were  sick,  if  he  were  wounded  unto  death  on  the  battle-field  a 
child  might  speak  to  him  without  abashment,  because  time  presses  • 
because  his  life  is  oozing  away ;  because  now,  if  ever,  he  must  hear 
the  central  truth  of  religion.  But  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  you  must 
be  a  John  Baptist  preparing  the  way  of  the  Lord  to  men. 

Now,  when  you  are  converted,  if  those  that  are  accustomed  to 
work  with  you  in  the  shop,  or  to  be  with  you  in  the  store,  are  un- 
converted, and  you  instantly  go  back  to  them  with  your  catechism 
and  your  confession  of  faith,  they  will  laugh  at  you,  and  say,  "  Ah  I 


146  TEE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

a  new  broom  sweeps  clean.  You  have  got  into  the  church,  and  you 
think  that  you  must  walk  straight."  And  you  set  them  against 
you.  But  if  you  are  kind  to  them ;  if  you  take  upon  yourself  ser- 
vices that  otherwise  would  fall  upon  them ;  if  you  serve  them  for 
love's  sake  ;  if  you  are  more  discreet,  and  in  talking  you  avoid 
topics  that  are  disagreeable  to  them ;  if  you  are  willing  to  work 
later  to  give  them  a  longer  evening ;  if  you,  by  a  hundred  kind- 
nesses, cover  up  their  faults,  and  rest  under  blame  rather  than  ex- 
pose them  ;  and  if  in  all  your  relations  with  them  you  are  generous, 
and  thoughtful  of  their  welfare,  they  will  soon  learn  to  respect  you. 
And  they  will  say  to  each  other  of  you,  "  Something  has  come  over 
him.  He  is  better  than  he  was  before."  Why  do  they  think  that 
you  are  better  than  you  were  before  ?  Because  in  so  many  ways 
you  send  out  the  pointed  flame  of  sympathy  and  kindness,  and  are 
burning  the  dross  out  ot  their  thoughts,  and  are  making  yourself 
agreeable  to  them,  not  by  pandering  to  their  wickednesses,  but  by 
doing  good  to  them.  You  do  not  necessarily  do  good  to  them  by 
instruction ;  but  you  do  them  good  through  taste ;  you  do  them 
good  through  your  power  of  ainusement ;  you  do  them  good  in  any 
way  in  which  you  can  do  good  to  them. 

A  person  who  has  been  endowed  with  richness  of  musical  talent 
has  a  wonderful  power  of  doing  good.  When  persons  are  converted 
to  the  Lord,  sometimes  they  put  away  all  their  music ;  they  put  away 
the  festive  dance ;  they  put  away  the  gay  entertainment.  Nay,  nay ; 
keep  them ;  but  when  you  sing,  it  is  a  Christian  heart  that  is  merry. 
What  if  it  be  a  carol,  or  love-song,  or  world-song  ?  If  your  heart 
has  seen  Jesus,  and  you  know  the  power  of  the  world  to  come,  sing 
it.  Sin<T,  not  for  yoxir  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  others.  It  is  a 
coin  that  will  pass  current ;  it  will  draw  men  to  you ;  and  they  will 
And  that  you  are  not  shut  off  from  them.  Participate  in  amusement, 
but  not  in  mere  gayety,  as  if  that  were  all.  The  moment  the  heart  is 
touched  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Comforter,  tlie  Enlightener,  it 
gives  a  different  character  to  everything  tliat  you  do. 

My  second  mother  (the  only  one  that  I  knew)  was  the  stateliest, 
and  the  devoutest,  and  the  most  crystalline,  and  the  loftiest  of 
women.  She  was  undemonstrative  in  affection  ;  but  she  was  my  very 
ideal  of  propriety,  and  elegance,  and  perfection,  and  taste.  And 
yet  I  remember  that  one  day  Avhen  my  father  was  playing  on.tLe 
violin  (it  happened  to  be  an  old  melody  that  she  was  familiar  with) 
in  a  neighboring  room,  and  we  were  sitting  in  the  dining-room,  she 
came  out  on  the  floor  (for  she  had  been  a  belle,  and  had  often  trip- 
ped the  light  fantastic  toe)  and  lifted  her  hands  gracefully,  and  com- 
menced dancing  around  the  room.     I  had  never  seen  such  a  thing  in 


TEE  LA  W  OF  BENEVOLENCE.  147 

that  house  before  !  I  looked  on  with  astonishment !  The  color 
came  to  my  cheeks,  and  the  light  to  my  eyes  !  And  I  have  thought 
that  if  my  mother  had  danced  a  little  oftener,  and  said  the  cate- 
chism a  little  less  often,  it  would  have  been  a  thousand  times  better 
for  me. 

If  you  have  gifts,  whatever  they  are,  of  beauty,  consecrate  them. 
If  you  have  the  gift  of  art,  consecrate  it.  If  you  have  the  gift  of 
eloquence,  consecrate  it.  If  you  liave  the  gift  of  poetry,  consecrate 
it.  If  you  have  the  gift  of  emotion,  consecrate  it.  If  you  have 
any  gift,  whatever  it  is,  make  sure  that  you  root  it  in  genuine  sym- 
2)athy,  and  that  you  exercise  it.  With  a  whole  heaven  before  you, 
cliild  of  God,  child  of  eternity,  brother  of  the  whole  race, 
now  sing  ;  now  go  forth  in  your  gayety.  There  is  a  moral  meaning 
to  it  that  will  redeem  it  from  all  possibility  of  perversion.  It  has  a 
meaning  that  will  annihilate  the  distance  which  there  is  between 
your  heart  and  the  hearts  of  other  people.  It  will -draw  people  to 
you.  You  want  people  baptized  in  the  fountain  of  your  sympathy 
and  love.  That  which  is  wanted  above  everything  else,  is  to  draw 
men  to  your  heart. 

When  Christ  went  to  the  miserable,  he  went  to  them ;  and  when 
he  laid  his  hand  on  them,  he  laid  it  on  them.  He  did  not  hold  him- 
self aloof  from  them.  He  touched  them  with  his  own  person,  with 
his  own  body,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  You  and  I  are  one."  And  when 
we  would  do  good  to  men,  we  must  give  them  more  of  ourselves 
than  mere  formulated  words  can  convey.  The  heart  must  somehow 
or  other  take  hold  of  men.  And  I  would  say  to  the  person  who  is 
brought  into  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  If  God  has  en- 
dowed you  with  gifts,  consecrate  them  to  the  work  of  common 
benevolence.  Do  not  think  of  maiming  them.  Do  not  disbranch 
yourself,  but  consecrate  everything  you  have.  You  have  much  to 
work  with ;  and  by  the  voice,  by  the  eye,  by  the  hand,  by  the  soul, 
by  everything,  make  men  about  you  more  happy.  Make  yourself 
more  necessary  to  their  hapi>iness.  And  that  will  give  you  an  op- 
portunity to  do  them  good  spiritually;  for  by  and  by  they  will  ask 
you  for  that  which,  if  you  were  to  intrude  it  upon  them  in  the  first 
instance,  they  would  not  receive. 

So,  while  there  is  a  great  deal  of  general  instruction  to  be  given 
in  Sabbath-schools,  and  Bible  classes,  and  religious  meetings,  let  no 
man  tliink  that  these  are  exclusively  the  ways  in  which  a  man  is  to 
do  good.  He  is  to  do  good  as  he  has  opportunity^  according  to  his 
faculties.  Love  men,  and  love  them  enough  ;  seek  their  happiness 
and  welfare,  and  seek  it  long  enough ;  make  yourself  felt  by  them 
personally  and  beneficially — that  is  your  business. 


148  THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

And  here  I  may  say,  In  carrying  out  this  woi'k  beware,  while 
you  do  not  neglect  home,  that  you  do  not  confine  the  disclosure  of 
yourself  to  your  own  household.  It  is  right  for  a  bird  to  make  her- 
self a  nest,  and  put  the  finest  moss  and  softest  feathers  in  that  nest, 
and  it  is  right  that  she  should  sit  upon  it.  It  is  right  that  she  should 
"''  have  but  one  chamber — for  birds  never  build  for  more  than  them- 
selves and  their  own.  But  they  are  only  birds,  and  do  not  know  any 
better.  It  is  for  us  to  build  a  broad  nest.  To  build  it  so  that 
nobody  can  get  into  it  but  ourselves,  to  line  it  with  our  own  pros- 
pei'ity,  and  to  selfishly  fill  it  with  everything  that  is  sweet  and  soft 
— that  is  not  right. 

I  think  that  a  man's  house  ought  to  be  a  magazine  of  kindness. 
Its  windows  ought  to  send  out  light.  I  like,  when  I  go  by  a  house 
at  night,  to  see  the  window-shutters  open  so  that  the  light  shines 
forth  from  inside.  Though  I  dislike  to  have  my  own  open,  yet  I 
tliink  how  many  persons  would  be  made  haj^pier  if  in  passing 
through  the  streets  they  saw  the  light  blazing  out  of  the  houses. 
There  are  a  thousand  such  little  things  by  which  others  may  be 
made  happy. 

A  person  says,  "  I  will  pvit  this  clump  of  flowers  under  the  parlor 
window."  No,  no ;  put  them  by  the  gate.  A  thousand  will  see 
them  there,  where  one  would  see  them  in  that  other  place.  A  per- 
son says,  "  I  will  jDut  this  plant  back  where  nobody  can  reach  it." 
Well,  do  ;  but  put  two  close  to  the  fence,  where  they  can  be  reached. 
I  like  to  see  little  hands  go  through  the  pickets  and  pluck  oif 
flowers.  And  if  you  say,  "  That  is  stealing,"  then  let  it  be  under- 
stood through  all  the  neighborhood  that  it  is  not  stealing.  There 
are  some  who  seem  to  have  such  a  sense  of  property  that  if  they  had 
a  hundred  magnolia  trees  in  full  blossom  on  their  premises,  they 
would  want  the  wind  to  blow  from  the  north  and  south  and  east  and 
west,  so  that  all  the  fragrance  would  come  into  their  own  house  ; 
whereas  the  true  spirit  would  be  a  desire  that  a  thousand  others 
should  be  blessed  by  these  bounties  as  well  as  themselves. 

I  think  that  it  is  generally  the  spirit  of  horticulture.  If  a  man 
has  fine  fruit,  he  is  crazy  to  give  it  away,  and  he  runs  all  over  the 
neighborhood  to  find  somebody  to  enjoy  it  with  him.  If  a  man  has 
an  abundance  of  choice  flowers,  he  is  not  stingy  with  them.  He 
enjoys  them  by  giving  them  away.  The  great  trouble  in  planting 
largely  is  that  you  have  not  folks  enough  to  give  your  flowers  to. 

You  say,  "  That  is  a  natural  feeling."  Well,  what  is  a  religious 
feeling  but  a  natural  feeling  raised  u]?  and  spiritualized  and  sancti- 
fied ? 

I  would  have  your  homes  made,  not  less,  but  more ;  but  in  making 


TEE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENGE.  149 

them  engines  of  happiness,  see  that  other  people  participate  in  that 
hapi)iness  as  well  as  you.  Make  your  dwelling  beautiful ;  but  not 
for  your  own  eyes  alone.  Fill  it  sumptuously,  if  you  have  the  grace 
to  rightly  use  that  sumptuosity.  Let  the  feet  of  the  poor  step  on 
your  j)lushy  carpet.  Let  their  eyes  behold  the  rich  furniture  of  your 
apartments.  Would  it  make  their  home  less  to  them  ?  Not  neces- 
sarily. If  you  take  a  child  by  the  hand — you,  whose  name  is  great 
in  the  toAvn  ;  you,  who  tower  up  in  power  above  all  your  neighbors  ; 
if  you  lay  your  hand  on  his  head,  and  call  him  "  Sonny  ;"  if  you 
bring  him  into  your  house  ;  if  you  go  to  the  cupboard  and  take  out 
the  unfamiliar  cake,  or  what  not,  that  children  so  much  like  (for 
the  senses  must  be  appealed  to  in  childhood  before  the  spirit  can 
be  reached  ;  and  by  feeding  the  mouth  of  a  child  you  come  to  his 
affections  and  feelings)  ;  if  you  show  him  your  rooms,  and  give  him 
something  in  his  pocket  to  carry  home  and  show  his  aunt  or  sister, 
do  you  sui:)pose  that  child  ever  thinks  you  are  stuck  up,  or  looks  on 
you  with  an  unkindly  eye  ?  When  he  comes  into  the  neighborhood 
again,  and  your  house  dawns  upon  him,  he  remembers,  the  moment 
he  sees  it,  how  happy  you  made  him  there.  And  that  house  of  yours 
can  be  made  to  bless  generation  after  generation. 

God  be  thanked  for  these  great  village  mansions  out  of  which 
comes  so  much  food  for  the  hungry  ;  out  of  which  comes  so  much 
raiment  for  the  naked ;  out  of  which  come  so  many  watchers  for 
the  sick  ;  out  of  which  come  so  many  genial  advisers  for  those  who 
are  in  circumstances  of  embarrassment ;  out  of  which  comes  so  much 
bounty  to  those  around  about  them  that  the  whole  community  come 
to  feel  an  ownership  in  them.  Do  you  suppose  that  wealth  can  ever 
be  perverted  by  ministering  to  the  comfort  of  the  neighborhood 
where  it  exists  ? 

As  you  have  opportunity,  do  good  to  all  men.  Build  your  house 
large ;  furnish  it  richly  ;  but  it  is  to  be  consecrated  to  making 
people  happy.  Let  your  doors  be  wide  ;  let  them  turn  on  their 
hinges  without  squeaking  ;  let  people  come  in  as  the  air  comes  ;  let 
your  hospitality  be  shown  freely  to  one  and  another.  So  living,  you 
cannot  be  too  royal. 

Oh !  what  an  artist  God  is  !  And  if  he  makes  his  foot-stool  as 
beautiful  as  the  earth  is  made,  how  does  he  make  his  throne  ?  If  he 
covers  his  heavens  with  these  evanescent  frescoes;  if  lie  paints 
these  panoramas  which  we  see  moving  through  the  summer  sky ;  if 
he  creates  such  statuary  as  we  see  everywhere  exhibited  in  winter, 
what,  think  you,  is  the  decoration  of  his  house  where  his  children 
come  home  to  dwell  with  him  forever  ? 

Do  not  be  afraid  to  build  fine  houses  j  and  do  not  be  afraid  to 


150  TEE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

spend  large  sums  of  money  in  their  decoration  ;  but  remember  that 
these  houses  are  not  for  you  alone,  but  for  everybody. 

So  much  for  home  ;  and  in  going  forth  from  it,  I  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  significant  feature  of  religion  as  you  will  find  it  set  forth 
in  the  epistles  as  well  as  the  life  of  Christ,  if  you  look  them  through 
— its  gentlemayiUness.  I  know  of  no  other  word  that  will  express 
the  idea.  Not  only  were  the  apostles  themselves — and  Paul  con- 
spicuously— men  of  the  utmost  courtesy,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
word,  but  there  is  not  a  vulgarizing  maxim  in  the  New  Testament. 
There  is  not  one  that  looks  toward  viilgarism.  There  is  not  one 
that  the  most  polished  and  noble  soul  does  not  feel  to  be  the  expres- 
sion of  its  highest  want.  "  Mind  not  high  things,"  said  Paul,  "  but 
condescend  to  men  of  low  estate." 

Now,  a  true  Christian  man,  a  real  gentleman,  while  he  speaks  to 
his  neighbor's  child,  and  to  his  natural  companions,  will  never  let 
any  one  pass  that  he  has  access  to,  without  courtesy — and  more,  as' 
men  need  more. 

Here  is  a  plain  man  ;  and  a  kindness  to  him  is  a  kindness  as  much 
as  it  would  be  to  your  heart-neighbor  whom  afiection  leads  you  to 
bestow  more  care  upon  than  upon  others.  Courtesy  in  life  should 
be  such  that  they  shall  have  most  kindness  who  need  most ; 
but  kindness  is  so  distributed  in  society  that  those  who  need  the 
most  have  the  least. 

What  makes  class  so  hateful,  is,  that  men  shut  themselves  up  in 
superiority  ;  that  when  men,  having  wealth,  have  leisure,  they  take 
that  leisure  and  separate  themselves  from  other  men,  thus  building 
up  a  wall  of  partition  between  themselves  and  others.  There  is  more 
sectarianism  outside  of  the  church  than  in  it.  There  is  a  Avidespread 
sectarianism  among  men  who  classify  themselves  without  thought 
of  others.  But  when  men  who  are  superior  hold  themselves  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospel,  which  is,  that  the  greatest  is  he  that  serves  the 
most,  and  that  the  strong  are  GocVs  natural  protectors  of  the  weaJc^ 
then  all  opposition  and  abuse  from  the  community  is  disai'med. 
Therefore,  if  you  see  a  plain  man,  speak  to  him.  He  is  not  of  your 
sort  ;  he  does  not  follow  your  congenial  avocation  ;  your  hands  are 
white  and  his  are  red ;  yours  are  delicate  and  his  are  rude ;  but  it  is 
not  the  hand  that  you  are  saluting  :  it  is  the  heart,  for  which  Christ 
died.  So  speak  kindly  to  him.  "  But,"  you  say,  "  do  you  suppose 
I'm  going  to  put  myself  on  a  level  with  a  low-bred  boy  ?"  No, 
make  yourself  superior  to  him.  Speak  to  him  more  kindly  than  any 
other  man  can.  Be  more  sympathetic  toward  him  than  any  other 
man  can  be.     That  is  true  aristocracy — the  aristocracy  of  the  heart. 

The  more  God  has  blessed  you,  the  more  you  need  to  go  down. 


TEi:  LA  T7  OF  BENE  VOLENCE  151 

Whcn'wc  are  prospered,  we  tend  to  drift  away  from  the  great  heart 
of  humanity  ;  we  tend  to  get  further  and  further  from  the  lower 
range  of  sympathy  ,  and  we  need  to  touch  the  ground  again.  It  is 
necessary  for  a  man's  health  that  he  should  feel  mother-earth  every 
day.  Dust  you  are,  dust  you  came  from,  dust  you  will  return  to  ; 
and  there  is  a  lesson  in  dirt,  if  men  will  only  choose  the  right  kind, 
and  use  it  ifl  the  right  way. 

Speak,  then,  to  the  man  that  takes  ashes  out  of  your  house.  Make 
him  feel  that  somebody  thinks  of  him,  and  that  that  somebody  is 
you.  And  do  not  forget  your  seamstress,  your  servants,  your 
driver.  And  do  not  think  of  them  by  these  names.  Do  not  think 
of  people  by  the  service-badge  that  they  wear.  The  man  that  you  call 
your  driver,  is  not  your  driver  :  he  is  your  brother-man.  Driving  is 
his  function  ;  but  he  is  not  a  driver.  We  come  to  think  of  men  by 
outside  names,  and  not  by  inside  substance  and  inside  feeling.  But 
this  ought  not  to  be  so.  And  in  proportion  as  men  are  pooref  and 
obscurer  than  you  are,  be  more  particular  to  sympathize  with  them, 
and  to  notice  them. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  lesson  that  I  received  when  walking  down 
Pierrepont  street  one  day.  When  this  church  was  being  built,  I 
became  acquainted  with  one  of  the  carpenters — a  plain  man — who 
worked  upon  it  ;  and  I  had  many  chats  with  him  afterward.  That 
day,  being  a  Christian,  (sometimes  I  am  not  one),  when  I  met  him, 
as  he  came  down  the  street,  I  stopped  and  spoke  to  him,  and  shook 
hands  with  him.  And  giving  me,  as  I  noticed,  a  peculiar  look,  and 
keeping  hold  of  my  hand,  he  said,  "  Now,  sir,  you  do  not  know  how 
much  good  this  does  me."  "  What  ?"  said  I.  "  Well,  your  speak- 
ing to  me,  and  shaking  hands  with  me."  Said  he,  "  I  shall  go  home 
to-night,  and  say  to  my  wife,  '  I  met  Mr.  Beecher  to-day.'  '  Ah !' 
she  will  say,  '  Wliat  did  he  say  ?'  and  the  children  will  look  up,  too. 
And  I  will  tell  them,  'He  stopped  and  shook  hands  with  me,  and 
asked  if  I  was  getting  along  well.'  And  they  will  talk  about  that 
for  a  week.  You  folks  tliat  live  up  here — "  [In  Pierrepont  street 
they  are  all  Christians,  but  they  are  not  always  as  Christian  as  they 
might  be] — "  you  folks  that  live  up  here  [glancing  around]  have  no 
idea  how  much  good  it  does  a  plain  man  to  be  noticed,  and  to  be 
made  to  feel  that  he  is  not  a  nobody." 

I  owe  that  man  a  good  many  sermons  for  that  sermon  which  he 
preached  to  me. 

Now,  when  yo>i  go  over  to  New  York,  there  is  the  ticket-man  at 
the  gate.  lie  is  your  brother.  And  there  is  the  engineer  down  in 
the  bowels  of  the  hold,  if  you  see  him.  And  there  is  the  pilot. 
Nobody  speaks  to  tliose  pilots.     In  storm  and  in  calm,  they  hold  in 


X 


152  THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

t^eir  hands  the  safety  and  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men, 
women  and  children  ;  and  they  do  it  so  skillfully,  and  so  kindly,  and 
so  well,  that  you  do  not  even  think  that  they  do  it.  And  when  I 
think  of  the  vast  amount  of  carriage  of  human  freight  which  there  is 
on  our  thoroughfares,  instead  of  cursing  the  pilots  and  engineers  for 
the  occasional  accidents  which  happen,  I  thank  God  that  we  have 
men  who,  in  the  main,  are  so  able,  so  faithful,  and  st)  careful  of 
this  precious  treasure  which  is  committed  to  their  trust.  Is  there  a 
man  in  a  cooper's-shop,  in  a  tin-shop,  or  at  an  anvil,  that  is  working 
for  you  ?  and  do  you  think  of  him  as  you  ought  ?  Do  you  say 
that  he  gets  his  money  ?  That  does  not  pay  him.  No  man  is  paid 
for  service  faithfully  performed  for  you  until  you  have  coined  some- 
thing out  of  your  heart  to  pay  him  with.  Money  does  not  reward 
service. 

This  spirit  of  real  brotherhood  should  not  confine  itself  to  the 
household.  It  should  go  out  from  the  family  on  to  the  street,  and 
through  all  the  avenues  and  vocations  of  life. 

And  do  not  forget  little  children.  Of  course  children  are  loved 
in  the  families  where  they  belong ;  and  of  course  all  sweet  children 
on  the  street  are  liked.  Who  ever  saw  a  doll-dressed  child,  with  one 
of  those  bewitching  little  red  sacques  or  hoods  on,  that  did  not  want 
to  catch  it  up  and  kiss  it  ?  But  then,  there  are  a  great  many  chil- 
dren that  are  dressed  raggedly.  There  are  a  great  many  children 
with  bad  eyes.  There  are  a  great  many  children  that  do  not 
keep  their  faces  clean.  I  do  not  admire  the  dirt,  but  they  are  chil- 
dreyi ;  and  they  need  that  somebody  should  make  them  feel  self- 
respect  ;  and  if  you  snub  them,  if  you  curse  them,  who  will  take  care 
of  them  ?  Their  parents  at  home  evidently  do  not  do  it,  or  are  unable 
to  do  it.  Be  kind  to  children;  and  be  kind  to  them  in  proportion 
as  they  are  needy.  If  you  take  ragamuffins  into  your  house ;  if  on 
New  Year's  Day  you  make  extra  preparation,  and  let  it  be  known, 
and  the  street  boys  all  find  out  that  there  is  a  basket  of  oranges 
waiting  for  them,  and  they  come,  and  you  give  them  a  warm  wel- 
come, you  preach  to  them  such  a  sermon  as  you  cannot  preach  to 
them  in  any  other  way.  They  are  not  able  to  understand  anything 
else  so  well  as  that.  They  will  make  you  trouble  ;  they  will  offend 
your  taste ;  they  will  soil  your  carpets  ;  they  will  do  many  things 
which  your  children  would  not  do  in  your  neighbor's  house ;  but  it 
is  the  misfortune  of  the  ignorant  that  they  do  not  know  how  to  be- 
have ;  and  somebody  must  teach  them.  And  Avhile  you  speak  to  all 
a  kind  word,  especially  speak  to  those  that  need  speaking  to  most. 
1  I  frequently  see  an  irruption  from  Furman  street  on  to  Columbia 
Heights.     We,  you  know,  live  on   Columbia  Heights  ^    and  what 


THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE.  153 

business  have  these  rough,  stamping  boys  to  invade  aristocracy  ? 
They  come  up,  ten,  twelve  of  them  at  a  time,  and  sweep  the  street 
of  all  the  puny  children  that  live  there.  And  often  they  come  with 
yells,  and  halloos,  and  rattling  kettles,  and  all  manner  of  disturbances. 
And  we  look  up  and  down  the  street,  and  say,  "  Where  is  the  police- 
man ?" — for  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  maintain  order  by  appealing 
to  the  officers  of  the  law.  And  yet,  I  say  to  myself,  "  I  wish  some 
of  those  boys  were  mine.  What  a  physique  !  That  head  has  sub- 
stance in  it !  That  head  ought  to  go  to  Congress — I  mean,  to  the 
Senate !"  And  as  I  look  at  them,  I  see  a  future  in  them.  I  see 
power  in  them.  I  see  much  to  admire,  as  well  as  some  things  to 
deprecate,  in  them.     And  really,  my  heart  turns  toward  the  boys. 

I  would  that  this  were  the  case  more.  I  would  that  I  were  not 
so  much  dependent  on  moods.  I  would  that  my  feelings  did  not  de- 
pend so  much  upon  sunshiny  days  and  gloomy  days.  I  would  that 
I  were  not  so  much  subject  to  introversion.  I  would  that  I  were  not 
so  much  absorbed  by  my  occupation.  But  we  are  all  infirm  in  these 
things.  And  yet,  if  we  have  this  idea  of  brotherhood,  and  are  seek- 
ing to  carry  it  out,  it  is  not  a  little. 

Only  one  thing  more — for  I  have  protracted  my  remarks  far  be- 
yond what  I  meant  to.  I  wish  that,  in  being  gathered  into  the 
church  of  Christ  here,  you  would  all,  old  and  young,  remember  that 
you  are  not  coming  timong  us  as  so  many  soldiers  to  be  regimented 
and  drilled  into  formal  propriety.  I  cannot  endure  the  thought  that 
Christ's  children  should  be  less  free,  less  joyful,  less  elastic,  and  less 
versatile,  than  anybody  else.  I  want  a  Christian  to  be  one  that  at 
heart  is  truly  upright ;  but,  more  than  this,  I  want  that  he  should 
be  one  that  shall  go  on  with  more  amplitude  of  life,  with  more  gay- 
ety,  with  more  cheerfulness,  with  more  happiness-producing  power 
than  anybody  else  in  the  community.  I  want  that  he  should  be  one 
that  shall  put  men  to  shame  by  well-doing.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
let  the  eye  blossom  ;  let  the  mouth  blossom ;  let  the  whole  life  be 
as  blossoms  and  clusters  that  men  shall  take  from  you.  I  call  you 
to  a  Christian  life  not  merely  to  save  your  souls — though  that  is  of 
transcendent  interest,  and  though  that  should  be  regarded  by  a  man 
as  of  most  serious  consideration,  underlying  the  incontrovertible 
object  of  religion.  I  call  you  to  a  Christian  life,  not  because  God 
has  a  right  to '  your  services — though  that  is  transcendent  over  all 
other  motives,  and  should  be  more  fruitful  than  any  other.  I  call 
you  to  a  Christian  life  for  the  sake  of  your  fellow-men  ;  that  you 
may  bear  to  them  that  which  life  needs  so  much — more  gentleness, 
more  ease  in  being  entreated,  more  sweetness  in  love,  more  kindness 
in  benevolence,  more  generosity,  more  condescension,  more  attention 


154  THE  LA  W  OF  BENE  VOLENCE. 

to  those  that  have  no  friends,  and  are  out  of  the  way.  I  call  you  to 
manifest  the  Spirit  of  Christ  on  tlie  right,  and  on  the  left,  and  under 
all  circumstances,  so  that  men  who  see  you  shall  say,  "  I  know  not 
whether  that  man  is  a  Christian  or  not,  but  I  know  that  he  not  only 
makes  me  better,  but  makes  me  happier."  Make  men  so  much  hap- 
pier that  they  will  long  to  be  better,  and  long  to  be  able  to 
make  others  happier. 

"  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works, 
and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Eternal  God  I  thou  art  lifted  above  all  the  infirmities  of  lime.  Thou  art 
not  overcome  with  weariness;  and  thy  strength  never  fails.  Neither  art 
thou  tempted  of  evil.  Thou  dwellest  far  above  all  imperfections,  and  all 
shadow  of  turning;  and  in  thine  own  infinite  self  thou  art  complete,  and 
thou  hast  no  need  of  counselors,  and  thou  needest  none  to  strengthen  thine 
hand.  Thou  abidest  forever.  We  perish  before  the  moth ;  we  are  full  of 
weakness ;  we  are  most  iguorant,  and  know,  often,  least  when  we  think  i  hat 
we  know  the  most.  What  time  thou  turnest  thine  hand  we  perish.  In  thee 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,  though  we  vaunt  our  own  knowl- 
edge, our  own  skill,  and  our  own  preservative  care.  O  Lord!  look  down 
with  compassion  upon  thy  creatures,  filled  with  infirmities  and  with  traus- 
gression.  We  have  broken  forth  into  sin  out  of  infirmities.  And  we  pray 
that  thou  wilt  pardon  all  the  wickedness  of  our  hearts,  and  all  the  evil  of 
our  lives,  and  lift  us  up  by  thy  strength  into  purity  and  knowledge,  and 
quicken  us  in  all  fervor  of  goodness,  that  we  may,  all  the  days  of  our  lives, 
live  with  open  face  toward  the  light  of  God,  unrebuked  and  unreprovable. 
We  pray,  O  Lord !  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  every  one,  according  to  his 
need,  that  grace  which  shall  be  efficacious  to  succor  those  that  are  iu  peril, 
to  comfort  those  that  are  in  grief,  and  to  rebuke  those  that  are  wandering 
away  selfishly  from  thee.  Remind  those  that  are  breaking  thqjr  covenant 
vows  with  thee.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  the  visitation  of  thy  comforting  Spirit 
to  all  that  are  sad  and  east  down,  by  reason  of  thy  dealings  with  them,  on 
account  of  their  own  selfishness  and  imperfections  and  sins.  And  we  pray 
O  Lord !  that,  as  a  mother  comforteth  her  child,  thou  wilt  comfort  those 
that  sit  in  dreariness  and  are  disconsolate.  For  thou  knowest  the  heart. 
Thou  hast  the  secret  of  comfort  with  thyself.  Eternally  joyful,  and  joy- 
bearing,  thou  seest  how  pain  that  ministers  sharply  fulfills  thy  will  and  luis- 
Bion.  And  we  pray  thee  that  pain  may  have  its  speedy  work  and  accom- 
plishment, and  that  out  of  suffering  may  come  patience,  and  gentleness,  and 
resignation,  and  sympathy,  and  kindness,  and  love.  And  w^e  pray  that  thou 
wilt  work  iu  the  hearts  of  all  thy  people,  cleansing  them  from  the  defilement 
of  the  flesh,  from  the  selfishness  of  life,  from  the  strifes  and  passions  that 
betide  us,  and  prepare  them  for  that  nobler  manhood,  that  better  residence 
among  the  saints  in  heaven.  \ 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  every  one  in  thy  presence,  and 
grant  that  the  blessing  of  thy  heart  and  thy  spirit  may  be  upon  all.  Hear 
the  voice  of  those  that  would  utter  promises  to  thee.     Hear  those  that  re- 


TEH  LA  W  OF  BBNJE  VOLENCU.  155 

joice  before  thee,  and  would  give  thanks  and  speak  thy  praise.  Grant  thy 
blessings  to  those  who  are  not  here,  but  who  are  full  of  gratitude  for  thy 
preserving  and  restoring  mercies.  Hear  those  that  desire  this  morning  to 
praise  thee  in  the  great  congregation,  long  absent  and  restored  at  last.  Grant 
unto  them,  we  beseech  of  thee,  secretly,  and  in  their  very  heart,  a  sense  of 
thy  presence,  and  a  consciousness  that  thou  dost  receive  their  offer. 

Be  near  to  those  that  are  in  discouragement,  and  may  they  see  the  light 
of  hope,  and  may  they  not  despond.  Though  great  may  be  their  adversa- 
ries, and  though  great  may  be  their  sense  of  imperfection,  may  they  yet 
have  ministered  to  them  such  a  sense  of  divine  grace  and  providential  care 
that  they  shall  be  able  to  rise  above  themselves  as  into  the  very  presence 
and  comfort  of  their  Redeemer. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord  !  that  thou  wouldst  be  with  those  who  would  be 
here,  nnd  who  sit  in  solitude  with  sad  thoughts,  or  overburdened  with  care, 
or  with  suffering  in  sickness,  or  homesick  and  far  away.  And  not  only  be 
with  them,  but,  since  to  thee  there  is  neither  time  nor  space,  since  to  thee 
all  things  are  present  and  near,  grant  that  the  mercies  that  are  descending 
upon  us  may  widen,  and  may  fall  upon  all  whom  we  would  have  with  us. 

We  pray,  O  Lord !  that  thy  blessing  may  come  this  day  unto  thy  churches. 
Let  us  not  have  thy  presence,  and  thy  power,  and  the  joy  of  thy  salvation, 
and  others  be  unwet  with  the  divine  dew.  Everywhere  strengthen  thy  ser- 
vants to  speak  thy  word.  Everywhere  kindle  in  the  hearts  of  thy  people 
joyful  worship. 

And  we  pray  not  alone  for  the  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  but  for 
the  power  of  Christian  love  and  faith.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  the  times 
past  may  be  sufBcient.  Grant  that  more  and  more,  as  the  day  approaches, 
we  may  see  the  tokens  of  thy  coming  for  the  emancipation  of  the  world. 
Lift  up  the  darkened  nations.  Pour  twilight  upon  those  that  sit  in  the 
region  and  shadow  of  death.  May  those  that  preach  the  cross  of  Christ  go 
forth  in  increasing  companies,  with  more  and  more  faith,  and  more  and 
more  success. 

We  pray  that  all  the  great  events  which  are  occurring,  that  all  the  dis- 
coveries which  are  being  made  in  science,  that  all  the  efforts  which  are 
being  put  forth  for  the  improvement  and  the  welfare  of  mankind,  may  be 
sanctified  by  thy  Spirit.  And  grant  that  we  may  not  alone  grow  in  outward 
estate,  and  in  things  material,  but  that  we  may  become  finer,  and  sweeter, 
and  truer,  and  more  just,  and  more  noble. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  fulfill  all  thy  promises  which  respect  thy 
Church,  and  which  respect  this  whole  world.  And  grant  that  the  weary 
waiting  of  ages  may  at  last  cease,  and  that  we  may  see  the  door  of  fulfillment 
standing  wide  open,  and  behold  the  heralds  and  angels  coming  forth  to  their 
rejoicing  work  of  consummation. 

Now,  Lord,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  tjiou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest 
upon  the  services  of  this  day.  May  all  those  that  teach  in  Sabbath-schools 
and  Bible-classes  be  able  to  teach  out  of  their  own  hearts.  May  they  have 
the  spirit  of  God  resting  upon  them.  May  all  those  that  go  forth  to  make 
known  the  Gospel  to  the  wanderers,  and  to  those  that  are  the  children  of 
misfortune,  and  to  those  that  are  imprisoned,  and  to  all  that  are  without 
God  and  without  hope  in  the  world,  go  with  the  double  Spirit  of  the  Mas- 
ter; and  grant  that  they  may  see  of  the  fruit  of  their  labor  and  not  be 
discouraged. 

And  we  pray  for  the  elevation  of  morals  in  our  cities.  We  pray  for  more 
wise  laws,  and  for  incorrupt  magistrates.  We  pray  that  this  whole  nation, 
80  signally  blessed  of  God,  may  study  justice  more.  Let  not  equity  perish 
from  our  midst.    More  and  more  may  men  rise  to  nobler  motives  and  to 


156  THE  LA  W  OF  BENEVOLBNCB. 

purer  lives.  And  grant  that  civilization  may  spread  from  this  land  to  all 
the  lands  that  sit  in  darkness.  And  have  pity  upon  those  who  are  in  strug- 
gle and  in  suffering  from  the  mighty  waves  of  adversity  that  beat  over 
them.  And  in  due  season  raise  them  up,  and  restore  them  to  prosperity  and 
to  greater  wisdom  than  before.  And  we  pray  that  thy  kingdom  may  come, 
and  that  thy  will  may  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven. 

We  ask  these  favors  in  the  name  of  the  Beloved,  to  whom,  with  th^ 
Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  shall  be  praise  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  add  thy  blessing  to  the  word  spoken.  Forgive  us 
all  our  sins.  Heal  us  of  our  weaknesses.  Strengthen  in  us  things  that  are 
right  and  just  and  true.  Open  in  us  a  fountain  of  pity.  Open  in  us  a  per- 
rennial  fountain  of  benevolence  and  sympathy  and  good-will.  And  we 
pray  that  we  may  abound  in  these  things  so  that  the  light  of  our  life  may 
be  the  joy  of  the  unfortunate.  May  we  be  the  comforters  of  the  poor  and 
needy,  and  so  live  as  benefactors  of  men,  that  we  shall  be,  at  the  last,  thought 
meet  to  enter  into  the  sympathy  of  the  just  made  perfect  in  heaven.  And 
unto  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise.  Fatiiert  Son  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


VIIT. 

The  Ages  to  Come. 


Breathe  upon  us  the  breath  of  life,  our  Father.  Thou  didst  trace  use; 
and  we  need,  every  day,  to  come  again  for  life.  Iti  thee  is  iufluite  fullness ; 
and  we  derive  from  thee  power  to  be.  And  we  rejoice  that  all  the  gifts  of 
life  which  malie  joy  or  peace,  upspring  from  thee.  Grant  that  in  the  service 
of  thy  sanctuary,  this  morning,  we  may  be  conscious  of  thy  surrounding 
presence,  and  feel  the  penetration  of  thy  Spirit.  May  we  rejoice  together. 
In  fellowship  of  song  may  we  praise  thee.  May  we  find  ihe  way  of  com- 
munion. Lead  us  therein.  Teach  us  how  to  pray  as  we  ought.  Bless  our 
worsbip  to-day.    Bless  our  devout  meditation.    May  all  this  day  be  filled 

with  joy  and  delight.    We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 
a. 


THE  AGES  TO  COME. 


"  That  in  the  ages  to  come  he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches  of  his 
grace,  in  his  kindness  toward  us,  through  Christ  Jesus."— Eph.  ii.,  7. 


The  context  is  this : 

"  But  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved 
us,  even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath  quickened  us  together  with 
Christ,  (by  grace  ye  are  saved),  and  hath  raised  us  up  together,  and  made 
us  sit  together  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus  :  that  in  the  ages  to  come 
he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches  of  his  grace,  in  his  kindness  toward 
us,  through  Christ  Jesus." 

You  will  observe  how  passionately  anxious  the  apostle  is  to  show 
that  all  that  God  did  to  Jesus  Christ  he  did  likewise  to  us.  And  as 
our  elder  brother,  we  are  inseparable  partners  and  brothers  Avith 
him.  When  we  were  dead  in  sins,  he  quickened  us  too-ether  w^ith 
Christ.  Dead  in  body ;  but  quickened  by  the  power  of  God.  Dead 
in  sins ;  but  quickened  by  the  same  power.  Raised  up  to^-ether  and 
made  to  sit  in  heavenly  jjlaces  with  Christ  Jesus.  Partnership,  indis- 
soluble union,  is  here  indicated. 

There  is  something  very  impressive  and  admirable  in  that  lono- 
look  ahead  which  distinguished  the  worthies  of  old.  None  ever  lived 
so  sympathetically  in  the  present  as  they  did.  None  ever  lived  so 
far  away  from  the  present,  and  so  far  ahead  of  it,  as  they  did.  They 
fed  their  souls  upon  the  visions  of  ages  to  come.  It  was  a  triumph- 
ant forelooking  in  Moses  that  seems  to  have  excited  the  apostle's 
admiration  :  "t^Ao  endured  as  seeinfj  hhn  loho  is  invisidle.^^  It  was 
that  feature  in  the  Saviour  that  attracted  the  eye  of  admiration : 
"  who  for  the  Joy  that  was  set  be/ore  him  endured  the  cross,  desjyising 
the  shame.''^  It  was  this  forelooking  to  the  sustenance  which  it 
brought,  and  the  rest  under  disquietude  which  it  gave,  and  the  in- 
spiration in  the  midst  of  despair  which  it  ministered,  that  led  the 
apostle  otherwheres  to  say,  "  Ye  are  saved  by  ho^ye  " — not  meanino- 
that  the  active  and  justifying  reason  of  salvation  is  that  we  are  hope- 
ful, but  that  in  our  warfare  with  the  world  we  derive  from  hope  such 
important  help  and  inspiration  that  it  may  be  said  that  without  it  we 
never  could  get  along. 

StiNBAY  Morning.  April  30,  1871.  LESSON:  Heb.  XII.  1—11;  33—25.     Hymns  fPlv- 
mouth  Collection) :  Nos.  7;i5.  878, 1359. 


16a  TEE  AGES  TO  COME. 

Tlie  apostles  seemed  to  regard  their  whole  experience  of  the  pres- 
ent as  a  mere  hint,  an  earnest,  a  bond  for  a  deed.  Here,  in  this  life, 
everything  seemed  to  them  but  in  its  initial  state,  in  its  seminal 
stage.  The  harvest  lay  beyond,  and  a  great  way  beyond,  in  the 
gathering  of  the  church — in  the  whole  future  condition  of  the  world, 
when  nations  should  be  righteous  ;  when  Christ  should  possess  the 
whole  earth.  In  looking  forward  to  all  those  great  elements  they 
saw  simply  glimpses  and  hints  of  them.  And  they  accepted  the  inti- 
mations of  the  present  as  so  many  tokens  of  something  transcend- 
ently  better,  for  which  they  were  laboring,  and  for  which  they  were 
waiting,  but  toward  which  they  were  traveling. 

The  glory  of  God's  work  cannot  be  found  out  on  earth — this  was 
their  feeling.  "  In  the  ages  to  come"  it  will  disclose  itself.  Now, 
rudeness  and  heartlessness  and  discord ;  but  "  in  the  ages  to  come," 
melody,  the  sweetest  and  most  continuous.  Now,  collision,  conflict, 
and  suffering ;  but  "  in  the  ages  to  come,"  peace  and  joy  unspeak- 
able and  full  of  glory.  Now,  all  darkness  ;  at  times  twilight  at  the 
best ;  but  "  in  the  ages  to  come,"  perfect  light,  perfect  disclosure, 
perfect  knowledge.  Now,  the  rudiment ;  but  then,  when  ages  shall 
have  passed,  the  full  form. 

1.  We  need  just  such  a  forelooking.  The  condition  of  the  human 
race  as  it  now  exists  is  not  a  cheme  for  pleasurable  meditation.  To 
those  who  believe  in  the  moral  government  of  God,  and  in  the 
active  administration  oi  affairs  in  this  world  and  in  nature  by  the 
divine  mind,  the  actual  tondition  of  the  race  seems  utterly  inexpli- 
cable. It  is  full  of  p&in.  The  lowness  of  the  average  of  intelligence 
and  of  social  virtue,  and  the  still  lower  average  of  spiritual  condi- 
tions, fills  the  mind  with  amazement  that  God  is  Father.  The  greatest 
part  of  the  world  is  but  little  redeemed  from  barbarism  ;  and  the 
development  of  the  race  from  barbarism  has  been,  within  historic 
periods,  coming  on  with  extreme  slowness.  Indeed,  what  has  been 
gained  on  one  side,  seems  to  have  been  lost  on  the  other.  It  is  true 
that  more  races  are  civilized  than  at  any  former  period ;  but  how 
many  thousands  of  years  have  been  expended !  and  how  little  of  that 
time  seems  to  have  had  addressed  to  it  any  active  or  apparently 
divinely-guided  instruments  of  restraint !  How  little  knowledge  of 
the  origin  of  men,  how  little  knowledge  of  their  own  powers,  how 
little  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  globe  on  which  they  dwell,  and 
how  little  knowledge  of  tht  principles  on  which  their  prosperity  de- 
pends, has  there  been  !  How  little  has  tended  toward  civilization, 
and  how  much  toward  animalism  and  superstition  !  How  little  has 
tended  toward  anything  but  brutality  !  Nations  learn  but  i-ery 
little,  and  that  little  they  forget  easily.    The  intellectual  and  the? 


THE  AGES  TO  COME.  161 

moral  faculties  are  certainly  stronger  to-day  than  ever  tliey  were 
before ;  they  are  stronger  in  a  greater  number ;  but  the  animal  pas- 
sions of  the  race  do  not  seem  to  have  lost  any  force.  Nor  do  they 
seem  to* be  under  any  greater  control  than  they  were  a  thousand  or 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

Nor  is  it  altogether  a  relief  to  us  to  leave  the  world  to  natural 
causes.  That  would  be  a  relief  if  generations  did  not  die,  and  if 
we  did  not  have  to  account  in  some  way  for  those  that  disappear  from 
this  life  and  re-appear  in  some  other  world.  If  annihilation  met  the 
iiicomplete  manhood ;  if  death  rubbed  out  being,  as  the  figures  on  a 
boy's  slate  are  rubbed  out  Avhere  the  sum  is  wrong,  that  it  may  be 
begun  again,  it  would  not  be  so  mysterious  nor  so  strange.  But  to 
suppose  that  through  age  after  age,  and  age  after  age,  almost  with- 
out instruments,  without  schools,  without  churches,  without  a  Bible, 
without  missionaries,  without  ministers,  Avithout  even  the  knowledge 
of  the  commonest  principles  of  physical  life,  the  race  has  been  pro- 
lific, bubbling  up  enormously,  and  dying  off,  myriads  and  myriads 
and  myriads  pouring  like  a  mighty  tide  into  the  great  invisible 
world  beyond — to  contemplate  that,  and  to  see  how  the  process  is 
still  going  on — if  that  does  not  task  one's  faith,  if  that  does  not 
wring  one's  hope,  or  fear,  as  the  case  may  be,  I  know  not  what  can. 

And  it  is  to  be  rememembered,  too,  that  as  we  ourselves  become 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  we  supply  severer  tests  to  civ- 
ilization, and  experience  more  revulsion  from  barbarism,  and  the 
marvel  increases.  As  a  light  shines  brighter  and  brighter  in  one 
place,  so  the  darkness  grows  more  and  more  impenetrable  in  every 
other  place. 

Therefore  it  is  that  we  must  believe,  if  we  believe  at  all  without 
explanation,  that  somehow  "  in  the  ages  to  come,"  when  there  is  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  righteousness  will  dwell  in  them.  By 
what  road  we  are  coming  to  it,  by  what  process  the  work  shall 
be  done,  we  cannot  say.  Ingenious  suggestions  may  be  made,  and 
analogies  may  be  pleaded  ;  yet  after  all  it  is  but  fancy.  All  that  we 
know  is,  that  "  in  the  ages  to  come  "  there  is  to  be  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth  in  which  will  dwell  righteousness,  and  that  tliere  is 
meaning  in  the  the  mystic  communication  that  Christ  will  take  his 
power  and  come  again  to  reign.  If  it  be  not  the  literal  millennial 
glory  which  men  have  counted  upon,  it  will  be  in  some  form  the 
substance  of  which  that  is  a  sign  and  symbol.  There  is  to  be  a  view 
that  shall  cast  light  and  glory  on  the  track  of  nations  and  races ; 
and  the  skepticism  and  animal  conditions  of  the  globe  are  not  to 
continue  for  ever. 

2.  The  condition  of  the  church  itself — all  that  which  we  are 


162  THE  AGES  TO  COME. 

■wont  to  esteem  as  the  best  part  of  the  church — the  most  favored, 
the  most  enlightened,  the  most  cultured — leads  one  to  rebound  from 
the  present,  and  to  seek  comfort  in  looking  into  "  the  ages  to  come." 
The  church  of  the  future — we  hear  much  of  it ;  and  the  less  it  re- 
sembles the  church  of  the  present,  I  think,  the  more  we  shall  like  it, 
and  the  more  we  shall  be  comforted  by  it.  For  the  church  of  the 
present  evidently  is  a  church  of  sinful  men  not  yet  sanctified.  It  is 
the'assembling  together  of  the  sick,  although  they  may  be  conva- 
lescent. We  should  not  seek  beauty  in  hospitals ;  and  as  long  as 
pride  and  selfishness  are  what  tuey  now  are,  as  long  as  the  spirit 
of  evil  so  largely  bafiles  the  work  of  grace — so  long  the  church, 
comprehensively  viewed,  will  be  rather  a  hospital  than  a  mansion 
or  a  household  of  beauty.  Single  groups  here  and  there  comfort 
the  eye.  We  see  in  villages  and  towns,  and  sometimes  in  large 
districts.  Christian  men  living  in  such  a  way  as  to  throAV  light 
upon  all  the  community,  and  raise  the  tone  of  conscience,  and  pro- 
mote civilization.  Nevertheless,  looking  at  the  church  the  world 
over,  it  is  a  great  army  divided  against  itself,  filled  with  seams, 
filled  with  imperfections,  careless  of  the  highest  things,  careful  of 
things  almost  inconsequential,  very  slow  in  progress,  given  up  largely 
to  externalities,  twined  about  with  superstitions  without  real  wor- 
ship, standing  fiercely  and  cruelly  for  things  without  value,  and  with 
an  average  of  piety  that  is  exceedingly  low.  "  The  ages  to  come," — 
we  must  look  into  them,  if  we  would  comfort  ourselves  and  be  kept 
from  despondency  when  we  look  into  the  time  that  now  is.  When 
there  shall  be  no  Oriental  church  and  no  Occidental  church  ;  when 
neither  Greece  nor  Rome  shall  give  their  name  to  the  collective 
people  of  God  ;  when  the  church  shall  not  be  divided  up  into  sects 
warring  with  each  other,  and  hating  each  other,  and  almost  wreak- 
ing cruelty  upon  one  another — then,  in  "  the  ages  to  come,"  the 
household  of  faith  will  be  built  beautifully,  and  God  will  dwell  with 
his  people,  and  they  shall  be  like  him.  We  look  away  from  the  real 
and  into  the  ideal,  and  build,  every  one  as  seemeth  to  him  best,  the 
vision  of  the  new  state  of  glory  when  love  shall  be  the  public  senti- 
ment of  the  churcli,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  church  shall  be  that 
which  springs  from  the  heart  of  love. 

3.  Our  knowledge  of  God  in  the  present  state  of  things,  with 
all  that  has  been  done  to  winnow  the  wheat  from  the  chaff,  is  ex- 
ceedingly incomplete  and  unsatisfying.  Our  knowledge  of  the 
divine  nature  is  unlike  the  knowledge  of  the  qualities  of  matter 
which  may  be  discerned  by  the  use  of  our  senses.  God  cannot  be 
learned  by  any  process  of  observation  ;  nor  can  his  kingdom  be 
studied  by  scientific  methods.     As  is  declared,  "  The  kingdom  of 


TBE  AGES  TO  COME.  *  163 

God  Cometh  not  "with  observation."  A  knowledge  of  the  divine 
nature  is  not  a  thing  to  be  demonstrated  by  scientific  tests.  It  de- 
pends upon  groAVth  in  us.  We  cannot  understand  in  God  anything 
of  which  we  have  not  something  in  ourselves  that  stands  for  a 
suggestion,  an  analogue,  and  of  which  we  have  not  had  a  parallel 
experience.  How  far  can  we  understand  God  ?  As  far  as  we  are 
developed  in  spiritual  directions.  How  is  it  possible  for  us  to  come 
to  any  considerable  understanding  of  God,  who  is,  after  all,  to  us 
but  a  Being  somewhat  greater  than  good  beings  whom  we  have 
known  upon  earth  ?  How  much  can  we  convey  of  our  nature  and 
of  our  modes  of  government  to  the  intelligent  creatures  that  are 
below  us  ? — for  there  are  creatures  below  us  who  understand  many 
things.  How  miich  could  we  make  the  horse,  the  dog,  or  the  ele- 
phant, understand,  either  of  our  dispositions,  or  of  the  motives  from 
which  we  work,  or  of  the  structure  and  nature  of  our  minds,  or  of 
the  processes  of  society,  or  of  the  civil  government  which  we  are 
carrying  on  ?  You  could  not  make  them  understand  these  things, 
because  they  have  not  the  development,  the  faculty,  that  makes  the 
meaning  plain  to  them.  The  beings  below  us  cannot  undei-stand  us 
because  they  are  not  sufficiently  unfolded. 

And  is  it  not  so  as  between  us  and  a  superior  Intelligence  ? 
There  is  not  that  in  us  which  can  understand  God.  Parts  of  his 
ways,  and  these  the  lower  parts,  we  understand  ;  but  the  distance 
between  us  and  the  Eternal  Father  is  greater  than  the  distance 
between  us  and  the  more  intelligent  animals  below  us.  And 
doubtless,  the  same  reason  prevails  in  both  directions.  Growth  is 
the  only  interpretation  of  God  which  will  reveal  him  to  its.  It 
cannot  be  done  by  the  blazing  light.  It  cannot  be  done  by  any 
formula  of  words.  It  cannot  be  done  by  any  symbolism  of  nature. 
All  these  things  may  help  a  little  ;  but  none  of  them  are  full 
interpi'etations,  which  can  come  only  by  the  evolution  of  that  which 
is  in  us,  and  which  we  are.  They  must  be  reserved  for  "the  ages  to 
come."     It  will  not  be  here. 

Now,  our  God  is  as  a  brilliant  star,  too  far  off  for  measurement ; 
but  bright,  we  know,  and  perfect,  we  know.  The  fact  of  his  exist- 
ence Ave  know  ;  but  little  else  do  we  know  concerning  him.  "  In 
the  ages  to  come"  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is.  Now  Ave  see  him  as  we 
are.  We  make  up  our  God  very  much  out  of  the  materials  which 
Ave  have  in  ourselves.  There  is  not  a  question  that  the  conception 
wliich  a  person  has  of  God  is  largely  an  ideal  made  up  out  of  his 
OAvn  experience  ;  out  of  his  own  imagination  ;  out  of  his  own  con- 
structive reason.  It  must  be  so.  We  cannot  do  better.  Never- 
theless, the  very  best  that  we  can  do  is  still  so  imperfect  that  we  do 


164  THE  A  GES  TO  GOME. 

not  see  Him  as  he  is.  Admit  that  God  is  perfect  wisdom  ;  hut  how 
much  do  we  know  of  perfect  wisdom  ?  Admit  that  he  is  infinitely 
just ;  but  how  imperfect  is  our  conception  of  justice  !  Admit  that 
he  is  perfectly  benevolent.;  but  who  understands  the  realm  of  benev- 
olence ?  Admit  that  he  is  impartial,  and  that  he  is  infinite  in 
capacity  in  every  direction  ;  what  are  these  but  words  ?  Who 
of  us  has  any  realizing  center  to  such  conceptions  ?  We  have 
never  seen  him.  Nor  can  we  see  him  and  live — or  while  we  are 
living.  It  is  not  given  to  the  body  to  do  it.  And  if  we  attempt,  as 
we  must,  as  the  very  best  thing  we  can  do,  out  of  our  own  limited 
understanding  of  mercy,  and  gentleness,  and  pity,  and  love,  and 
self-denial  and  compassion,  to  conceive  of  the  character  of  God, 
it  may  transcend  the  heathen  deities,  it  may  at  times,  under  the 
flashing  acumination  of  our  imaginations,  touched  by  his  Spirit, 
kindle  to  a  sacred  glow.  But,  after  all,  when  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is,  not  the  first  rude  daubs  of  the  incipient  artist  will  seem  so  rude, 
when  the  master-artist  has  found  his  skill,  as  our  earliest  conceptions 
of  God  will  seem  when,  "  in  the  ages  to  come,"  we  shall  see  Him  as 
he  is,  no  longer  as  through  a  glass  darkly,  no  longer  as  the  vision 
of  our  own  imagination,  no  longer  as  the  imperfect  work  of  our 
reason,  but  in  all  the  amplitude  and  fullness  of  the  real  Being,  and 
when  we  are  so  developed  that  we  are  able  to  behold  and  still  to  live. 
We  see  on  every  side  how  many  analogies  of  this  there  are.  We 
see  how  impossible  it  is  for  beings  to  conceive  of  things  that  are  far 
along  beyond  them  in  the  way  of  development.  Who,  for  instance, 
that  was  created  with  mature  power,  but  had  never  lived  to 
gather  experience,  could  to-day  form  the  slightest  forecast  of  next 
October  ?  Who  could  tell  the  color  of  the  Autumn  from  the  first 
growths  and  germs  of  the  Sjiring  ?  Imagine  an  Esqiximaux  striving 
to  form  some  idea  of  the  tropics  from  the  missionary's  description. 
What  has  he  to  form  an  idea  from  but  the  moss  and  stinted  shrubs 
that  scarcely  grow  higher  than  his  feet,  and  the  flowers  that  blossom 
in  the  midst  of  northern  glaciers  ?  Would  he  form  a  conception  of 
the  brilliant  fruits  of  the  tropics  ?  He  must  grub  the  ground 
for  berries,  which  are  all  the  fruit  that  the  frigid  zone  knoAvs.  And 
from  the  creeping  vine  of  the  wintergreen-berries,  from  the  huckleber- 
ries, and  such  like  things,  he  is  to  form  his  ideal  of  those  magnificent 
parasitic  plants  which  fill  the  tropical  forests.  These  little  berries 
are  his  oranges  and  bananas  and  pine-apples.  He  attempts,  shiver- 
ing in  the  midsummer,  imder  the  iceberg,  to  form  a  conception  of 
the  everlasting  pomp  and  glory  of  the  equatorial  region.  And  when 
he  has  formed  a  conception  of,  it*  he  cheers  himself,  and  sighs,,  and 
wishes  he  could  see  it.     Oh  !  it  is  so  beautiful  in  his  imagination  ! 


THE  AGES  TO  COME.  165 

But  what  does  he  know  of  it  ?  What  is  an  Esquimaux'  ideal  of 
equatorial  glory  ?  The  reality  transcends  unspeakably  any  concep- 
tion wliich  he  can  form. 

And  that  which  is  to  be  revealed  to  you,  "  in  the  ages  to  come," 
when  you  shall  have  left  these  mortal  bodies,  when  you  shall  have 
experienced  the  sensations  of  the  new  life,  when  you  shall  have  un- 
folded and  come  into  the  realm  where  things  are  no  longer  symbols 
but  realities ;  when  the  physical  shall  have  ceased,  and  the  spiritual 
shall  have  been  ushered  in — that  will  surpass  any  ideal  that  your 
highest  imagination  has  ever  pictured. 

4.  "  The  ages  to  come "  will  reveal  a  personal  experience  in  us 
of  which  now  we  have  but  the  very  faintest  trace  in  analogy.  We 
cannot  at  present  form  a  conception  of  perfection  in  the  elements 
which  constitute  character.  You  never  can  tell  what  the  ripe  is  from 
looking  at  the  green.  If  an  unknown  seed  be  brought  to  you,  and  you 
plant  it  in  the  ground,  and  it  sprout,  and  grow  for  five  years,  only 
throwing  out  leaves,  and  for  five  years  more,  still  only  throwing  out 
leaves,  can  you  tell  how  its  blossoms  are  going  to  look  ?  You  never 
saw  them.  The  tree  is  a  new  one.  You  have  seen  the  root,  the  leaves, 
and  the  bark,  and  you  have  cut  into  the  wood ;  you  know  its  habits 
for  the  first  ten  years;,  you  know  when  its  leaves  appear  in  the 
I  Spring,  and  when  they  fall  ofi"  in  the  Autumn;  you  know  everything 
about  it  as  far  as  it  has  gone  during  those  ten  years;  but  you  can- 
not guess  whether  its  blossoms  are  white  or  yellow.  You  cannot  tell 
whether  they  will  hang  in  racemes,  or  rise  up  in  circles.  You  cannot 
tell  whether  they  will  stand  out  in  spikes,  or  be  pendant.  You  can- 
not tell  whether  they  will  be  early  or  late.  You  cannot,  if  the  shrub 
or  tree  be  unknown,  find  out  the  prophecy  of  the  blossoms. 

But  at  last  the  blossom  comes  out.  Now  tell  me  what  that  blos- 
som is  going  to  produce.  Look  at  it.  Is  it  going  to  put  forth  a 
pod,  or  is  it  going  to  be  a  fruit  ?  Is  it  going  to  be  a  seed,  or  luscious 
food  ?  You  cannot  tell  from  a  blossom  what  the  fruit  is  going  to 
be,  except  by  analogues ;  and  I  am  now  supposing  a  new  plant  of 
which  there  has  been  no  congener  within  your  knowledge,  and  that 
you  are  attempting,  from  a  lower  state,  to  conceive  of  the  higher. 

Now,  in  regard  to  human  beings,  there  is  nothing  in  the  unripe 
state  of  tlie  mind  which  is  a  fair  interpretation  of  what  ripeness  in  it 
is  going  to  be.  You  could  never  have  told,  except  by  seeing  it, 
what  the  human  reason  was  competent  to  do.  Consider  the  force 
of  reason,  by  wliich  the  whole  })hysical  universe  is  being  now  u-n- 
barred ;  by  which  the  most  distant  orbs  are  being  search^,  weighed, 
analyzed  ;  by  which  we  are  unwrapping  the  sun,  and  taking  off  coat 
after  coat ;  by  which  we  know  more  about  the  sun  itself  than  often- 


166  TEE  AGES  TO  COME. 

times  men  do  of  the  province  in  which  they  live  on  earth.  "What 
an  education  !  What  an  outstretch  of  thought !  What  development 
of  the  reasoning,  searching  power  of  the  mind  !  Who  could  have 
suspected  it  in  the  days  of  barbarism  ?  No  man  could  then  have 
told  that.  And  who  now  can  foretell  what  new  development  the 
human  reason  is  capable  of  ?  As  from  the  lower  stages  you  could 
not  suspect  the  higher,  so  from  the  present  stages  you  cannot  antici- 
pate those  which  are  yet  to  come.  Now  we  think ;  but  in  the  higher 
forms  of  thinking  there  is  the  intuition,  the  jump,  as  it  were,  the 
flash  of  thought,  with  which  our  present  thinking  is  not  to  be  com- 
pared. We  call  it  ifituition,  we  call  it  inspiration,  we  call  it  names ; 
but  names  are  not  things.  There  is  evidently  the  hint  of  a  wondrous 
disclosure  of  power  in  the  direction  of  reason  "  in  the  ages  to  come." 
We  do  not  see  it  here.  We  cannot  know  it.  We  can  only  know 
what  is  the  perpetual  suggestion  of  it.  Says  the  apostle  St.  John : 
"  We  are  the  sons  of  God;  Taut  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be." 

We  are  God's  sons ;  but  the  fullness  of  that  word  sons  is  not 
translated  to  us.  The  condition  in  Avhich  we  are  is  such  as  to  make 
it  impossible  for  us  wisely  and  fully  to  forecast  the  future. 

Who,  for  instance,  can  tell  what  the  difference  will  be  to  him 
when  he  shall  drop  the  body,  with  all  its  appetites  and  passions? 
How  much  of  that  which  is  sin  in  us  now  is  from  the  excesses  of  the 
driving  forces  of  the  appetites  !  Many  a  man  is  like  a  very  small 
boat  with  a  very  large  engine  which  racks  it  all  to  pieces  with  its 
power;  and  many  a  man  is  like  a  very  large  boat  with  a  very  small 
engine,  so  that  its  motion  is  feeble  and  sluggish,  because  the  engine 
cannot  generate  enough  power  to  propel  it.  Some  men  are  over- 
bodied,  and  some  are  under-bodied.  Some  are  over-excitable,  and 
some  are  under-excitable.  There  is  every  conceivable  variation  in 
men.  It  is  a  matter  which  seems  to  follow  no  law  of  volition,  and 
no  law  of  nature,  and  no  law  of  science.  And  it  is  a  matter  about 
which  we  are  never  consulted.  We  find  ourselves  set  afloat  in  time 
with  all  sorts  of  craft — some  broad  and  some  narrow ;  some  sharp- 
bowed  and  some  blunt-bowed ;  some  with  sails,  and  some  with  en- 
gines ;  and  some  with  little  help  of  any  kind.  And  thus  equipped 
every  man  is  to  solve  the  problem  of  life.  Every  man  is  to  take  his 
own  structure  as  God  has  given  it  to  him,  and  work  out  true  man- 
hood. Every  man  is  to  make  his  own  special  condition  the  point  of 
starting  and  measuring. 

Who  cg-n  conceive  what  it  will  be  to  be  set  free  from  all  these 
things,  so  that  the  sluggish  temperament  is  dropped ;  so  that  the 
fiery  temperament  is  dropped;  so  that  the  intense  energy  in  this 
or  that  passional  direction  has  ceased ;  so  that  there  shall  be,  as 


TEE  AGES  TO  COME.  1G7 

when  a  whirlwind  has  passed,  a  calm,  and  there  shall  be  no  sway- 
ing, as  the  mighty  winds  sway  the  groaning  trees;  so  that  there 
shall  be  quiet  in  every  bodily  inducement  to  evil  ?  Who  can 
imagine  how  one  will  feel  under  such  circumstances?  Who  can 
form  any  idea  of  what  will  become  of  what  is  left  of  him  ?  Who 
can  judge  of  the  power  to  which  his  reason  might  have  attained,  or 
of  the  height  to  which  his  moral  sentiments  and  affections  might 
have  mounted  up,  if  it  had  not  been  for  cumbering  animalism  ;  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  fiery  temptations  which  come  from  fighting  in- 
stincts ;  from  over-eating  and  over-drinking ;  fxom  physical  impul- 
sions ?  We  cannot  arrive  at  any  notion  of  how  we  should  feel  if  we 
were  emancipated  from  these  lower  propensities. 

Suppose  you  were  to  wake  up  to-morrow  morning  without  being 
proud,  do  you  know  how  it  would  feel  ?  Suppose  you  were  to  wake  up 
to-morrow  morning  not  obstinate  but  easy  to  be  entreated,  can  you  im- 
agine what  sort  of  a  creature  you  would  be  ?  Suppose  you  were  to 
wake  up  to-morrow  morning  with  the  spirit  of  avarice  taken  out  of 
you,  so  that  you  were  not  over  desirous  to  gain  wealth,  but  were  de- 
sirous of  being  just  in  your  dealings  with  your  fellow-men,  can  you^  im- 
agine such  a  thing  ?  We  are  always  full  of  sickness ;  and  it  is  hard  for 
the  sick  to  remember  how  they  felt  when  they  were  well,  or  to  re- 
alize how  they  s-hall  feel  when  they  are  restored  to  life  again.  But 
"  m  the  ages  to  come  "  we  shall  neither  be  helped  nor  hindered  by 
the  cumbrances  of  these  mortal  bodies. 

Some  believe  that  this  mOrtal  body  rises  again.     Thank  God  ! 

not  I.     I  have  had  enough  of  it.     And  when  once  the  earth  takes  it, 

let  it  keep  it.     The  tree  is  welcome  to  what  of  me  it  can  get,  so  far 

as  the  body  is  concerned.     Says  the  apostle  : 

"  There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body.      "  Flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Good-by,  old  flesh  and  blood.  I  am  bound  for  God's  kino-dom 
without  flesh  and  blood  ;  and  what  it  will  be  to  be  without  them  I 
cannot  tell ;  but  I  know  it  will  be  magnificent — never  tiring  any 
more,  unwearied  and  unweariable,  with  nothing  to  hinder,  and 
everything  to  help.  Is  it  needful  that  on^  should  sleep  and  wake  ? 
Is  it  needful  that  one  should  waste  half  his  precious  time  in  sleepino- 
and  eating  ?  Is  it  needful  that  more  than  one'  half  of  our  beino- 
should  be  dedicated  to  the  animal  life  ?  Is  it  needful  tliat  there 
should  be  but  half  or  a  third  of  our  time  available  for  the  immortal? 
However  it  may  be  in  the  present,  "  in  the  ages  to  come,"  over  the 
mountains,  across  the  valleys,  behind  the  clouds,  beyond  all  cal- 
culable periods,  there  will  be  a  state  in  which  we  shall  have  dropped 
this  natural  body,  and  in  which  we  shall  be  endued  with  our  spirit- 


168  THE  AGES  TO  COME. 

ual  body,  whatever  that  is,  and  shall  be  free  from  the  circumscrip- 
tion and  weariness  of  this  mortal  condition.  Who  can  tell  how  he 
will  seem,  or  how  he  will  be,  then  ?  Besides,  there  will  be  the  pres- 
ence of  things  which  are  nut  known  now  and  here.  He  shall  be  sur- 
rounded with  influences  of  which  we  know  nothing,  but  which  grow 
out  of  the  perfected  state.  We  shall  be  surrounded  by  a  society 
such  as  the  apostle  sjDcaks  of: 

"Ye  are  come  ...  to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the  flirst-bom, 
which  are  written  in  heaven, .  .  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  per- 
fect." 

What  would  it  be  to  live  for  a  single  year  in  society  where  every 
thought,  and  every  look,  and  every  word,  and  every  act,  and  every 
suggestion  was  lifting  you  higher,  and  ennobling  you  ?  As  we  live 
among  men,  we  are  perpetually  weighing  them  ;  we  are  all  the  time 
parrying  with  them;  we  are  forever  defending  ourselves  against 
them.  We  are  continually  running  backward  and  forward  in  life. 
Though  we  are  friends  to  each  other,  yet  we  are  more  or  less  hin- 
drances one  to  another.  We  are  throwing  oif  this  and  shutting 
ourselves  up  against  that  influence  which  our  fellow-men  exert  upon 
us.  We  are  incessantly  dodging  and  eluding  each  other,  as  well  as 
helping  each  other.  And  who  can  conceive  of  that  state  in  which 
every  eye  shall  shine  on  him  like  a  star ;  in  which  every  heart  shall 
impress  itself  on  his  heart,  and  make  it  better,  and  give  it  an  im- 
pulse in  the  right  direction,  so  that  every  being  shall  imprint  on 
him  some  glorious  aspect ;  so  that  as  every  plant  in  a  garden, 
though  all  be  united,  is  beautiful  in  its  own  way,  so  every  single 
creature  of  the  whole  realm,  lifted  into  the  highest  state,  shall  bring 
balm  and  sweetness  to  every  other  one  ?  Now,  we  are  hindered,  not 
only,  but  we  are  oppressed  by  each  other — by  even  the  well-mean- 
ing. And  what  shall  that  condition  be  in  which  everybody  shall 
help,  and  everything  shall  help,  and  all  hindrances  shall  be  gone, 
and  sorrowing  and  sighing  shall  have  passed  away,  and  singing  shall 
have  taken  its  place,  and  God  shall  wipe  the  tears  from  every  eye  ! 

What  can  you  conceive  of  the  connections  which  we  shall  form 
there  in  this  new  society,  when  friendship  shall  be  purified  from  all 
its  lower  forms  and  selfishness  shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  it, 
when  there  shall  be  no  discrepancy  between  our  reason  and  our  con- 
science, and  when  we  shall  be  perfectly  harmonious  ? 

If  fifty  men  in  Bedlam,  each  having  a  separate  instrument  of 
music,  should  play  on  that  instrument — one  playing  his  trumpet, 
another  screeching  his  hautboy,  another  beating  his  drum,  another 
playing  his  fiddle,  and  others  playing  their  various  instruments — 
each  in  his  own  way,  and  without  any  reference  to  the  others,  who, 


THE  AGES  TO  COME.  169 

going  by,  could  form  any  idea  of  what  would  come  from  those  in- 
struments if  every  one  of  these  men,  having  got  back  to  his  reason, 
was  playing  in  perfect  harmony  and  in  a  sweet  concord?  The 
hideous  cacophony,  the  din  and  the  jar,  of  such  a  Bedlamite  band — 
would  it  not  be  very  much  like  the  play  of  our  affections  and  feel- 
ings— sweet  instruments,  but  played  in  horrible  dissonance  ?  And 
what  shall  that  state  be  in  which  God  shall  make  the  whole  of  them 
to  be  united  sympathetically,  and  all  of  them  to  be  played  together 
in  unison — every  power,  every  emotion,  every  instinct  of  love,  sweet- 
ened, deepened,  broadened,  inspired,  rendered  divine  by  the  presence 
of  God?     But  this  is  for  "the  ages  to  come." 

A  hopeful,  a  joyful  imagination  of  "  the  ages  to  come,"  should 
be  encouraged,  though  it  may  be  full  of  fancy  and  inaccurate — as  it 
will  be.  For  we  do  not  pretend  that  any  man  can  limn  this  picture. 
We  do  not  pretend  that  any  man  is  entitled  to  say  that  his  view  is 
any  more  correct  than  the  views  of  others.  But  after  all,  the  main 
defect  of  fore-looking  into  "  the  ages  to  come,"  will  be  deficiency 
rather  than  exaggeration.  Our  mistake  will  be,  not  in  making  reason 
too  full,  but  in  its  meagreness ;  not  in  making  purity  too  resplendent, 
but  too  tame ;  not  in  making  joy  too  great,  but  too  little ;  not  in 
making  things  better  than  they  are,  but  in  not  knowing  how  to  make 
them  good  enough.  We  are  not  in  any  danger  of  exaggerating,  so 
far  as  our  concej^tion  of  the  future  state  is  concerned. 
"  We  are  the  sons  of  God." 

There  are  your  figures  to  cipher  with. 
"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be." 

No  man  can  cipher  out  that  result.  It  will  transcend  any  image 
that  you  make  of  it.  Draw  from  the  heavens  ;  draw  from  all  that  there 
is  on  earth  ;  draw  what  you  can  through  the  channels  of  inspiration 
and  of  revelation  ;  collect  and  cluster  together  the  things  which  men 
have  agreed  to  consider  most  admirable  ;  and  from  these  form  pic- 
torial parables  of  the  City  with  its  golden  streets,  with  its  gates  of 
pearl,  with  its  walls  of  precious  stones,  with  its  beautiful  gardens, 
with  its  flowing  rivers,  and  with  its  trees  whose  leaves  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations ;  picture  as  you  may  the  future  state  from 
oriental  conditions,  or  from  the  household,  or  the  commonwealth  as 
they  now  exist ;  from  any  and  all  of  these  form  your  conception  of 
it ;  form  your  conception  of  it  in  any  way  that  you  please  ;  but  re- 
member that  when  you  have  made  it  just  as  briglit  as  your  imagina- 
tion can  sketch  it,  when  your  fancy,  architecturally,  has  wrought  it 
as  skillfully  as  it  can,  and  everything  has  been  carried  to  the  highest 
pitch  that  your  eartlily  power  will  allow,  your  conception  will  yet 


1 70  THE  AGES  TO  COME. 

be  imperfect.     For  the  sweet  apostle,  looking  upon  you  as  a  father 
upon  his  children,  says, 
"  It  doth  not  yet  appear." 

You  have  gathered  from  the  cradle  purity  of  idea,  and  clasp  and 
cling  of  faith  ;  you  have  gathered  from  rich  companionship  what  is 
the  thrill  and  the  joy  of  the  higher  life  ;  you  have  gathered  from 
the  patriarch  and  the  matron — saints  not  yet  gone  home  to  glory — 
dignity  and  patience,  and  all  that  makes  generosity  and  magna- 
nimity ;  you  have  gathered  your  best  fruits,  and  fashioned  them 
into  single  characters,  and  into  ranks,  and  into  communities,  and 
into  nations  ;  and  you  have  combined  all  these  things  in  your  con- 
ception of  the  resplendent  throne  of  the  All-Father.  And  yet,  saith 
the  sweet  apostle  again, 
"  It  doth  not  yet  appear." 

Certainly  not,  brethren.  And  if  you  still  add  nation  after  nation, 
and  age  after  age,  to  that  conception,  it  will  still  fall  short  of  what 
the  future  is  to  reveal  of  the  goodness  of  God  through  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

I  will  not  open  the  subject  further,  but  will  close  with  one  or 
two  applications. 

How  much  better  it  is,  then,  to  live  by  faith,  than  it  is  to  live  by 
Bight ! — and  you  will  see  that,  by  faith,  I  mean  a  sanctified  imagina- 
tion, or  the  imagination  applied  to  spiritual  things.  I  suppose  that  to 
be  the  generic  definition  of  faith.  That  which  a  man  sees  in  this 
world  is  not  to  be  Compared  for  beauty  nor  for  comfort  with  the 
things  which  he  can  imagine.  Merely  worldly  men  look  upon  things 
as  they  are.  They  must,  in  bo  far  as  business  is  concerned.  The 
nearer  men  can  come  to  things  as  they  are,  the  better  workmen  they 
will  be,  and  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  transaction  of  purely  secular 
afiairs.  But  our  truest  manhood  is  not  in  the  administration  of 
material  things.  Our  highest  nature  does  not  lie  merely  in  the  ex- 
actitudes of  physical  elements.  We  are  to  have  an  eye  that  looks 
beyond  what  the  mere  natural  man  has  known.  The  spiritual  man 
sees  all  that  the  natural  man  sees,  and  then  sees  much  besides.  It 
is  sad  to  see  how  the  average  of  men  live  in  this  world.  It  is  sad  to 
see  how  little  they  have,  and  how  little  they  can  do  ;  how  much 
there  is  of  desire,  and  how  little  there  is  of  satisfaction.  It  is  sad  to 
see  how  men  yearn  for  happiness,  and  how  seldom  they  gain  it.  Joy 
comes  mostly  in  childhood.  Then  comes  the  tug.  The  bright  side 
of  life  disappears,  pride  is  humbled,  and  often  grows  malignant. 
Health  breaks  down.  Expectations  are  overwhelmed.  The  malign 
passions  rise  and  dominate  over  the  higher  faculties.  The  average 
of  men  live  on  a  very  low  allowance  of  enjoyment.     They  live  in 


TEE  A  GES  TO  COME.  171 

the  literal  present ;  and  that  is  very  poor.  First,  they  are  huoyed 
up  by  hope.  Then  comes  anxious  expectation.  Then  they  wrestle 
with  disappointment  and  despondency.  And  at  last  they  are 
reduced  to  the  worst  straits.  And  they  lose  the  respect  of  their 
fellowmen  ;  and  are  kicked  about  in  society  ;  and  some  day  it  is 
said  of  them,  "  lie  is  dead  ;"  and  men  say,  "  Ah !"  And  that  is  the 
end. 

One  of  the  most  piteous  of  things  is  to  see  how  men  live.  I  do 
not  mean  barbarians.  I  mean  intelligent  men.  I  mean  men  brought 
up  by  much  care  and  culture.  The  world  is  piteous  to  live  in  if  this 
is  the  only  world.  If  there  is  nothing  but  what  is  here,  I  do  not 
wonder  that  the  aspiring  mind  cries  out,  "  We  are  of  all  men  most 
miserable."  But  a  Christian  man,  under  precisely  the  same  circum- 
stances, has  aground  transcendently  higher.  For  if  there  be  nothing' 
for  him  that  suits  his  ambition,  or  his  yearnings,  or  his  wants,  hei-e, 
he  has  the  land  beyond.  He  knows  that  he  is  but  a  stranger  and 
pilgrim  ;  and  he  comforts  himself,  as  he  goes  through  the  wilderness, 
thinking  of  the  home  toward  which  he  is  traveling.  And  he  weaves 
tapestries,  and  paints  pictures,  and  carves  various  creations.  Living, 
as  he  does,  by  faith,  and  not  merely  by  sight,  his  imagining,  his 
picture-painting,  his  idealizing,  his  holy  revery,  is  filling  the  great 
empty  heavens  with  all  conceivable  beauty.  And  what  if  it  be 
evanescent  ?  So  is  the  wondrous  frost-picture  on  the  window;  but 
is  it  not  beautiful,  and  worth  having  ?  So  is  the  summer  dew  -upon 
the  flower ;  but  is  it  not  renewed  night  by  night  ?  And  faith  is  given 
to  man  to  lift  him  above  the  carnal,  the  dull,  the  sodden,  and 
to  enable  him  to  conceive  of  things  beyond  that  to  which  any 
earthly  realization  has  yet  ever  attained. 

So  contrast  the  difference  between  going  through  life  on  the  part 
of  one  who  has  this  sense  of  "  the  ages  to  come,"  and  on  the  part 
of  one  who  lives  only  on  the  horizon  of  this  world.  ]\[en  who  are 
bound  up  in  this  world  do  not  like  to  think  of  the  future.  Men  do 
not  like  to  think  of  growing  old.  There  comes,  almost  always,  a 
shock  the  first  time  a  man  finds  that  his  keel  grates  ;  the  first  time 
he  finds  that  the  stream  is  growing  shallower  ;  when  he  first  dis- 
covers that  there  are  white  hairs  upon  his  head ;  the  first  time  it 
fairly  comes  to  him,  "  Your  eyes  are  giving  out ;"  the  first  time 
some  not  irreverent  but  inconsiderate  person  says,  "  Get  out  of  the 
Avay,  old  man,"  and  he  looks  around  and  sees  that  it  is  he  himself 
that  is  being  addressed. 

I  once  heard  a  person  say,  "  I  hate  to  grow  old."  But  he  was 
shoved  along  every  day,  notwithstanding.  He  had  to  grow  old.  The 
teeth  showed  it ;  the_  hair  showed  it  j  the  eye  showed  it  j  the  ear 


172  THE  AGES  TO  COME, 

showed  it ;  'every  sense  showed  it.  The  old  tabernacle  could  not 
stand  the  wind  and  the  water  that  were  forever  beating  upon  it  and 
battering  it. 

But  hear  Paul  say, 

"  We  know  that,  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dissolved, 
we  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  njade  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens." 

Hear  the  Master  say, 

"  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions"  [apartments.]  "  I  go  to  pre- 
pare a  place  for  you." 

A  man  who  believes  and  takes  in  the  meaning  of  these  declar- 
ations, receives  the  knocks  and  ill-fortune  of  life,  and  says  to  every 
wind  that  shakes  his  earthly  house,  "  Blow  !  My  real  house  is  not 
touched  by  any  earth-storm."  To  every  infelicity,  every  circumscrip- 
tion, and  every  other  token  of  weakness  that  comes  with  growing 
old,  he  says,  "  You  have  very  nearly  run  out,  and  I  hunger  for  '  the 
ages  to  come,' " 

The  spiritual  man  is  giving  up  physical  things  all  the  time,  and 
is  getting  more  and  more,  clear  down  to  the  end.  But  it  is  just 
the  other  way  with  the  natural  man.  He  is  all  the  time  trying  to 
hold  on  to  things  that  are  material,  and  is  getting  less  and  less,  clear 
down  to  the  end.  The  man  who  lives  simply  for  this  world  and  for 
his  senses,  the  literal  man,  is  living  out  his  patrimony.  He  is  spend- 
ing all  he  has.  His  pockets  grow  shalloAver  and  shallower.  The 
nerve  becomes  duller  and  duller.  The  eye  can  no  longer  see  such 
things  as  it  once  did.  The  ear  can  no  longer  hear  such  pleasant 
sounds  as  it  has  heard.  But  it  is  not  so  with  a  man  that  is  living  by 
faith.  He  never  hears  so  much  as  when  he  begins  to  hear  nothing. 
Milton  said,  in  substance,  that  God  shut  his  eyes  that  he  might  shine 
upon  him  with  the  higher  light  of  his  own  Spirit.  To  him  blind- 
ness was  not  darkness,  but  that  twilight  which  came  upon  him  from 
a  higher  realm.  For  when  this  outward  body  decays,  the  mind 
does  not  decay  with  it.     The  apostle  puts  it  in  strong  antithesis : 

"  Though  our  outward  man  perish,  yet  the  inward  man  is  renewed  day 
by  day." 

And,  not  only  that,  it  grows  more  and  more  vivid  and  intense. 

So,  the  old  miser  takes  care  of  his  wealth,  but  he  cannot  help 
thinking  who  will  have  his  money.  It  cannot  be  many  months  be- 
fore he  will  have  to  go  and  leave  it ;  but  he  does  not  like  to  think 
of  such  a  thing.  Next  to  him,  right  by  the  side  of  his  abundance, 
may  be  a  Christian  pauper  starving.  And  in  his  suffering  he  says, 
"  Thank  God  !  I  am  almost  home,  where  my  treasure  is,  and  Avhere 
I  shall  hunger  no  more,  and  have  no  more  care  and  trouble." 

He  that  is  living  by  the  body  is  living  out  everything.     He  is 


THE  AGES  TO  COME.  173 

like  a  candle  that  is  burning  down  in  the  socket.  But  he  that  is 
livino-  in  the  spirit,  is  living  toward  everything — toward  hope,  to- 
ward joy,  toward  fullness,  toward  refinement,  toward  elevation,  to- 
ward grandeur. 

When  that  venerable  and  dear  old  man,  my  father,  for  a  year 
was  without  the  knowledge  of  himself,  it  was  to  me  the  most  piteous, 
the  most  utterly  unbearable  of  all  earthly  spectacles,  unrelieved  but 
by  this  single  thought — "  Old  patriarch,  your  light  has  not  gone 
out.  It  is  merely  obscured  by  some  film  of  the  flesh.  It  shall  not 
lie  quenched.  And  ere  long  the  blow  shall  come  that  shall  break 
this  casket,  and  let  it  out.  You  are  grander  than  you  ever  were, 
and  nearer  to  royalty,  always  royal." 

They  that  live  to  the  flesh  are  living  crumbling  lives,  and  are 
gomg  toward  dissolution  all  the  time.  It  is  only  they  who  live  the 
life  of  faith,  by  the  imagination,  in  holy  things,  that  have  before 
them  "  the  ages  to  come."  They  are  those  who  live  toward  hap- 
piness, singing  more  and  more,  rejoicing  more  and  more,  the  circles 
and  the  waves  of  their  experience  running  with  wider  and  wider 
sweep. 

When  we  see  men  that  are  old  and  infirm,  we  sometimes  say, 
"  They  look  like  disbranched  trees"  ;  but  if  God  were  to  touch  our 
eyes,  and  reveal  to  us  the  companies  of  angels  that  surround  such 
venerable,  waiting  saints,  we  should  never  think  that  they  were  soli- 
tary, or  impoverished,  or  to  be  pitied. 

I  love  to  think,  also,  in  this  view,  that  wliat  seems  to  be  the 
mystery  of  the  silence  of  death,  which  envelops  so  many  that  we 
loved  on  earth,  is  not  really  a  mystery.  Our  friends  are  separated 
from  us  because  they  are  lifted  higher  than  our  faculties  can  go. 
Our  child  dies.  It  is  the  last  that  we  can  see  of  him  here.  He  is 
lifted  so  far  above  us  that  we  cannot  follow  him.  He  was  our  child ; 
he  was  cradled  in  our  arms  ;  he  clambered  upon  our  knees.  But 
instantly,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  God  took  him,  and  lifted  him 
up  into  his  own  sphere.  And  we  see  him  not.  But  it  is  because  we 
are  not  yet  developed  enough.  We  cannot  see  things  spiritual  with 
carnal  eyes.  But  they  who  have  walked  with  us  here,  Avho  have 
gone  beyond  us,  and  whom  we  cannot  see,  are  still  ours.  They  are 
more  ours  than  they  ever  were  before.  We  cannot  commune  with 
them  as  we  once  could,  because  they  are  infinitely  lifted  above  those 
conditions  in  which  we  are  able  to  commune.  We  remain  here,  and 
are  subject  to  the  laws  of  this  realm.  They  have  gone  where  they 
Bpeak  a  higher  language  and  live  in  a  higher  sphere.  But  this  si- 
lence is  not  the  silence  ot  vacuity,  and  this  mystery  is  not  the  mys- 
tery of  darkness  and  death.     Theirs  is  the  glory  ;  ours  is  the  waiting 


174  TEE  AGES  TO  COME. 

for  it.  Theirs  is  the  realization  ;  ours  is  the  hoping  for  it.  Theirs 
is  the  perfection  ;  ours  is  the  immaturity  striving  to  be  ripe.  And 
when  the  day  comes  that  we  shall  disappear  from  these  earthly 
ecenes,  we  shall  be  joined  to  them  again  :  not  as  we  were — for  we 
shall  not  then  be  as  we  were — but  as  they  are,  with  God.  We  shall 
be  like  them  and  him. 

And  so,  even  in  respect  to  the  things  that  the  heart  holds  dear- 
est, and  that  we  are  called  to  give  up,  we  are  not  gloomy  and  sad. 
For,  as  we  go  on  down  toward  the  end  of  life,  and  one  after  another 
is  taken  away  from  us,  these  "  ages  to  come"  are  the  breast  of  con- 
solation to  us.  And  we  look  toward  them.  We  look  away  from 
the  trite,  and  flat,  and  dreary  monotony  of  the  present ;  we  look 
away  from  its  storms  ;  we  look  away  from  the  oppressive  heat  of  its 
Summer,  and  the  bitter  cold  of  its  Winter ;  we  look  away  from  its 
temptations  and  trials  ;  we  look  away  from  the  things  as  they  are,  to 
that  blessed  time,  ages  from  now,  in  which  there  shall  be  perfect 
thought,  perfect  feeling,  perfect  association,  and  perfect  knowledge 
of  God,  knowing  as  we  are  known,  and  in  which  we  shall  go  on  for- 
ever and  forever,  blessed  and  blessing. 

"  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us, 
even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath  quickened  us  together  with  Christ, 
and  hath  raised  us  up  together,  and  made  us  sit  together  in  heavenly  places 
in  Christ  Jesus,  that  in  the  ages  to  come,  he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches 
of  his  grace,  in  his  kindness  toward  us  through  Christ  Jesus.'' 


TEE  AGES  TO  COME.  175 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Our  heavenly  Father,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  made  thyself  familiar 
•with  us.  Not  that  we  understand  thee,  whose  greatness  surpasses  all 
thought,  and  the  richness  of  whose  being  transcends  any  experience  that  we 
know  upon  earth ;  but  thou  hast  been  pleased  to  liken  thyself  unto  things 
familiar,  and  to  call  thyself  Father,  and  to  teach  us  to  say.  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven.  We  are  thine,  and  thou  art  ours.  Thou  hast  impressed  us 
with  thine  all-comprehending  love.  Thou  hast  made  us  to  feel  what  are  the 
riches  of  thy  being.  Not  only  hast  thou  communicated  to  us  by  the  world 
which  is  without,  by  the  things  which  we  behold  in  life  around  about 
us,  but  we  have  the  witness  of  thy  Spirit  with  ours.  There  is  a  voice 
inaudible  to  our  outward  sense — the  voice  of  God  in  our  soul.  There  is  a 
divine  presence  in  which  is  richness,  and  fullness  of  joy,  and  peace.  Thou 
hast  brought  it  near  to  us.  We  are  witnesses  of  thy  sustaining  power,  often, 
in  circumstances  of  peril  and  of  great  trial.  We  have  known  thee  when  in 
solitude  and  in  sorrow.  We  have  felt  thee  in  the  midst  of  griefs  and  vehe- 
ment alllictions.  Thou  hast  come  to  us  in  the  stirrings  of  fear.  Thou  hast 
drawn  near  to  us  in  hours  of  great  trouble,  and  manifested  thyself  to  us  as 
8  God  of  peace  and  great  mercy,  forgiving  iniquity  and  sin.  And  werejoioe 
that  we  have  our  hsritage  of  experience  in  thee,  and  that  with  thy  name  has 
been  associated  much  of  our  very  life.  And  yet,  how  little  of  our  nature 
hath  goxe  toward  thee !  and  how  little  of  thine  is  explored  or  explorableby 
ours!  How  much  in  glorious  reserve  awaits  our  understanding,  when  we 
shall  be  born  into  spiritual  things  !  Thou  art  far  from  us  only  because  we 
are  so  small  and  so  poor,  and  have  known  so  little  that  interprets  thee. 
And  we  rejoice  that  we  are  living  toward  the  knowledge  that  yet  shall  be 
ours,  and  that  thou  hast  in  the  future  glorious  and  blessed  things  in  store 
for  those  that  serve  thee  faithfully  unto  the  end.  Grant  that  we  may  have 
convoying  grace,  that  in  all  the  perils  of  the  way  we  may  be  surrounded  by 
thy  care.  We  commit  our  souls  to  thy  keeping.  To  thee  we  commit  all  our 
woi'ldlv  good— our  friendships,  our  hopes,  all  the  things  for  which  our  ambi- 
tions strive.  And  we  desire  that  thou  and  thy  righteous  will  should  reign 
over  all  that  we  have,  or  hope  to  be. 

And  we  beseech  of  the<?  that  thou  wilt  keep  alive  in  us,  and  quicken,  con- 
science, that  we  may  be  more  and  more  desirous  of  things  that  are  true  and 
right;  of  things  that  are  high  and  divine.  May  we  be  delivered  from  the 
power  of  the  world  in  undue  measure.  May  we  be  delivered  from  too  great 
avarice  for  its  affairs,  for  its  joy,  for  its  pleasure.  And  we  pray  that  we  may 
have  more  and  more  the  eye  that  beholds  the  invisible,  and  the  heart  that 
rests  in  things  to  come. 

We  pray  for  those  in  thy  presence  who  offer  up  their  thanksgiving.  Wilt 
thou  be  pleased,  this  morning,  to  accept  their  grateful  thanks. 

Draw  near  to  those  that  fain  would  confess  to  thee  their  sin,  this  morning, 
the  burden  of  which  lies  heavy  upon  them,  or  hangs  as  a  cloud  above  them. 
Wilt  thou  give  them  release  from  fear.  Wilt  thou  give  them  that  quietness 
which  they  have  whose  sins  are  forgiven. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  be  with  all  who  come  to  thee  for  rescue  in 
peril,  and  for  deliverance  out  of  temptation,  and  for  patience  and  strength 
under  the  trials  which  press  upon  them.  Thou  know'est  altogether  every 
heart. 

We  commend  to  thee,  this  morning,  those  who  fain  would  supplicate  thy 
presence  and  thy  mercies.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to 
all  those  who  are  sitting  in  sorrow,  and  can  scarcely  look  up,  or  call  to  thee, 
though  their  afllictious  are  great.  And  although  for  the  present  it  is  gloomy 


176  TEE  AGES  TO  COME. 

and  sorrowful,  bring  to  them,  by  and  by,  the  pleasant  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness. We  pray  that  thou  wilt  uphold  them,  that  their  faith  may  not  fail 
them. 

Be  near  to  those  that  are  perplexed,  whether  it  be  concerning  their  house" 
hold,  conceining  their  worldly  affairs,  or  concerning  themselves.  We  pray 
that  they  may  cast  their  burden  on  the  Lord,  and  feel  sustained  by  his  pres- 
ence and  grace. 

Draw  near,  we  beseech  of  thee,  to  all  those  who  are  in  the  midst  of  life's 
battle.  May  they  be  girded  with  strength  that  is  not  their  own,  but  thine. 
May  they  be  able  to  turn  aside  temptation  and  the  tempter.  May  they  be 
able  to  acquit  themselves  like  men. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord,  our  God !  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  who  are  labor- 
ing in  word  and  in  doctrine.  May  all  that  go  forth  to  teach  be  themselves 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  pray  that  those  who  bear  the  tidings  of 
truth  to  the  scattered  and  the  wandering  may  have  the  blessing  of  their 
Father  evermore  going  with  them.  And  may  their  souls  be  so  full  of  the 
true  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  that  everywhere  their  words  may  win  some.  We 
thank  thee  that  thy  truth  is  not  without  power.  We  thank  thee  that  those 
who  labor  in  faith  and  in  patience  see  of  the  travail  of  their  souls.  We 
thank  thee  that  so  many  are  from  time  to  time  turning  away  from  evil,  and 
learning  the  right  path,  and  seeking  to  pursue  the  things  that  are  noble  and 
pure  and  right  before  God,  and  comely  before  men.  May  the  truth  be  in- 
creased. 

May  those  who  are  beginning  a  life  reformed,  a  life  upward  and  spiritual, 
not  be  discouraged  nor  overborne.  And  if  they  stumble,  may  they  not  be 
destroyed.    Lift  thou  them  up,  and  carry  them  unta  the  end. 

And  we  pray  for  the  rescue  of  the  outcasts;  of  all  that  are  in  thrall;  of 
all  that  fain  would  break  away  from  passions;  of  all  that  are  ensnared  in 
tbeir  own  sins.  We  pray,  O  Lord,  Redeemer  and  Deliverer!  that  thou  wilt 
send  rescue  to  them. 

Rememberany  that  are  backslidden;  any  that  have  known  thee,  and  that 
are  following  but  afar  off,  almost  out  of  sight  and  light  and  warmth.  Bring 
them  near  again  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  their  souls ;  and  restore  to 
them  the  joys  of  thy  salvation. 

We  pray  for  the  young,  that  they  may  grow  up  uncontamlnated;  that 
they  may  grow  up  valiant  for  the  truth,  and  with  a  feeling  of  honor  for 
things  that  are  pure  and  right.  We  pray  that  they  may  be  delivered  from 
those  that  would  destroy  them.  May  the  generation  that  is  rising  serve 
God  and  their  country  better  than  the  generation  which  is  passing  away. 

Cleanse  the  laws  of  this  land,  and  all  its  customs.  Grant  that  the  magis- 
tracy may  be  everywhere  God-fearing.  Be  pleased  to  bless  the  President  of 
these  United  States,  and  those  that  are  associated  in  counsel  with  him,  and 
the  members  of  the  General  Government,  and  of  the  Governments  of  the 
States.  We  pray,  O  Lord!  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  them  that  guidance  of 
thy  wisdom  which  shall  keep  them  from  mistake  and  all  harm. 

Deliver  this  nation  from  intestine  feuds,  and  from  bitteriiess.  And  grant 
that  justice  and  intelligence  and  virtue  may  thrive,  and  that  on  these  a 
glorious  perfection  may  be  developed. 

We  pray  for  the  nations  of  the  earth— for  those  that  are  drinking  blood. 
Let  the  cup  pass  speedily.  O  Lord !  let  not  the  iron  heel  of  war  forever 
dominate  over  the  weak  and  the  poor.  Grant  that  at  last  thy  banner  may 
be  lifted  up,  white,  spotless,  and  peace  prevail  in  all  the  earth.  And  may 
justice  strengthen  it  and  preserve  it,  and  all  the  nations  see  thy  salvation. 
We  ask  it  for  Christ  Jesus'  sake.    Amen. 


IX. 

The  Two  Revelations. 


INVOCATION. 

Thou  that  hast  drawn  us  hither  by  the  sweet  invitation  of  thy  Spirit, 
grant  now  unto  us  a  welcome.  For  how  do  we  receire  with  gladness  under 
our  dwelling  those  whom  we  love !  And  how  much  more  to  us  art  thou,  our 
Father!  And  what  is  the  gladness  with  which  thou  dost  smile  upon  those 
that  are  beloved  of  thee !  Lift  us,  this  morning,  out  of  our  selfishness,  and 
out  of  the  quick-bred  doubts  of  the  soul,  into  the  dear  understanding  of  thy 
love  and  mercy  and  yearning  goodness,  ttat  in  thee  we  may  be  able  to  re- 
joice, not  on  account  of  what  we  are,  but.  oij  account  of  what  thou  art,  in  all 
thy  bounty,  and  in  all  thy  long-suffering  kindness  and  tender  mercy  to- 
ward us. 

Bless  us  in  all  our  endeavors  to  please  thee.  Accept  tbe  offer  of  our 
hearts,  and  the  expression  of  them.  Accept  our  songs,  which  in  fellowship 
one  with  another,  we  offer  before  thee.  Inspire  us  with  a  desire  to  commune 
with  thee;  and  then  lead  us  the  unknown  way. 

Bless  the  reading  of  thy  word,  and  all  the  services  of  instruction.  Bless 
our  meditations,  this  day,  and  our  rejoicings  one  with  another,  at  home, 
and  by  the  wayside.     And  may  this  be  a  day  of  deUght  to  us  all 

We  ask  it  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Spirit.  Amen. 


THE  T¥0  REVELATIONS. 


"  For  when  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the 
things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto 
themselves:  which  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  their 
conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing 
or  else  excusing  one  another  ;  in  the  day  when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets 
of  men  by  Jesus  Christ  according  to  my  Gospel."    Rom.  H.,  li-16. 


The  "law"  here  spoken  of  was  the  Mosaic  law,  unquestionably. 
To  the  Jews  the  term  law  conveyed  about  the  same  meaning  which 
to  us  the  word  Bible  docs.  It  was  their  Book;  or,  it  presented  itself 
to  their  mind  as  the  inscribed  and  recorded  sum  of  their  relio-ious 
faith  and  observances,  just  as  the  Bible  stands  before  us  as  the  Book 
of  our  faith,  and  the  Guide  and  Directory  of  our  lives  and  disiiosi- 
tions. 

The  apostle  argues  that  the  law — that  is,  the  Jewish  Bible 

existed,  in  regard  to  its  essential  elements,  outside  of  itself,  if  I  may 
so  express  it ;  that  the  great  truths  which  it  embodied  did  not  exist 
for  the  first  time  in  the  Old  Testament  Scripture,  and  were  not 
created  for  it,  but  that  they  were  founded  in  nature — so  much  so 
that  when  men  had  no  access  to  the  law,  they  went  on  (the  better 
portion,  the  more  intelligent  and  enlightened,  of  them),  seekino* 
after  the  very  same  ends,  in  the  path  of  the  very  same  truths  that 
the  Jew  did  by  his  Scripture.  And  the  teaching  of  the  apostle  is, 
that  although  the  light  was  paler,  and  the  path  more  obscure,  it 
was  substantially  the  same  path  and  the  same  light,  after  all. 

The  Gentiles — that  is,  the  great  nations  of  the  world  outside  of 
Jewry — were  also  seeking  for  truth  ;  for  honor  ;  for  justice  ;  for 
fidelity  ;  for  reformations  from  evil  ;  for  higher  spiritual  develop- 
ment ;  for  more  insight.  They  were  men  full  of  noble  aspirations. 
North  of  them,  east  of  them,  north-east  of  them,  all  the  way  along 
the  Mediterranean  coast,  there  were  men  of  great  mental  stature  and 
high  genius,  and  not  deficient  in  moral  sentiments,  all  seeking, 
though  blindly,  or  rather  in  a  twilight,  the  same  great  ends. 

Now,  the  apostle  says, 
"  "When  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the  things 

Sunday  EvENiNa,    April  23,  1871.  Lesson  :   Matt.  V.,  3—16,     Hymns  (Plymjouth 
Collection) :  Nos.  687,  849,  78. 


180  THE  TWO  EEVELATI0N8. 

contained  in  the  law,  these,  having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves  : 
which  show  the  worlc  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience 
also  bearing  witness,  and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or  else 
excusing  one  another  [their  moral  consciousness  condemning  them  or 
approving  them.]" 

And  thus  he  identifies  the  subject-matter  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scipture  with  the  truths  which  God  has  revealed  in  nature. 

In  other  words,  the  truths  of  the  Old  Testament  belong  to  the 
nature  of  things.  They  are  organic.  They  are  fundamental.  If 
you  go  through  the  Bible  you  shall  find  them  there  ;  and  if  you  go 
down  to  the  bottom  of  things  you  shall  find  them  there.  They  are 
a  part  of  ^e  constitution  of  nature.  They  are  not  found  in  nature 
because  the  Bible  put  them  there  ;  but  they  are  found  in  the  Bible 
because  they  were  in  nature  first. 

This  was  certainly  the  method  by  which  our  Master  taught. 
The  union  of  two  striking  peculiarities  was  found  in  the  Saviour. 
One  was  a  quiet  compliance  with  the  whole  custom  and  worship 
of  his  time.  He  was  a  thorough  Jew  in  his  religious  habits.  He 
kept  Jewish  days.  He  observed  the  Jewish  ceremonies.  He  fi-e- 
quented  the  temple.  He  was  devout.  He  recognized  the  festivals. 
He  worshiped  in  the  synagogue.  We  find  him  continually  taking 
part  in  the  synagogue  worship.  And  we  do  not  find  that,  by  word 
or  deed,  he  set  aside  any  part  of  the  national  worship.  Yet  you 
shall  not  find  an  instance  in  which  he  intensified  or  ratified  truth 
by  reference  to  custom,  or  by  founding  it  at  all  on  precedent.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  appeal  of  Christ  was  always  to  reason,  and  to 
that  part  of  reason  which  we  call  moral  consciousness.  He  based 
his  instruction,  not  upon  the  venerableness  of  precedent,  nor  upon 
the  claims  of  antiquity,  nor  upon  the  wisdom  of  observing  the  cus- 
toms which  had  been  prevalent,  nor  even  upon  the  commands  of 
Scripture ;  but  upon  this :  It  is  true,  and  therefore  it  is  right. 
He  urged  men  from  considerations  that  went  back  of  external 
revelation,  and  beneath  it ;  that  went  to  the  sources  from  which 
revelation  itself  sprang.  And  it  may  be  said  that  all  the  great 
truths  of  the  Word  of  God  are  true  whether  the  Bible  is  believed  in 
or  not.     But  more  of  that  further  on. 

It  will  be  found,  therefore,  that  the  foundation  principles  of 
Christianity  rest  in  the  nature  of  things.  Christianity  is  not  only 
not  in  antagonism  to  nature  (cursed  be  he  that  makes  it  seem  so), 
but  is  coincident  with  it.  It  is  not  in  antagonism,  in  any  of  its  parts, 
with  nature.  It  is  not,  either,  a  super-addition  to  nature.  Chris- 
tianity is  nature  itself,  and  the  best  part  of  it — that  part  which  re- 
lates to  man's  soul ;  that  part  which  takes  cognizance  of  the  morality 
and  the  divine  clement  in  man.     Christianity  does  not  undertake  to 


TEE  TWO  EEYELATIONS.  181 

help  nature  in  the  organization  of  the  globe,  nor  in  its  moral  laws, 
nor  in  its  political  economy,  nor  in  ten  thousand  elements  which 
are  of  transcendent  importance.  Christianity  appropriates  to  itself 
simply  the  province  of  the  divine  and  spiritual  elements  that  are 
in  man;  and  in  respect  to  them,  Christianity  is  a  part  of  natui-e. 
Not  only  is  Christianity  not  in  conflict  with  nature,  not  only  is  it 
not  an  artificial  thing  which  stands  above  nature,  but  it  is  an  inter- 
pretation of  that  which  is  everlastingly  true. 

The  great  Bible  truths,  then,  were  not  made  by  the  Bible.  They 
were  not  invented,  they  were  not  gotten  up,  for  the  sake  of  making 
a  Bible.  The  principles  of  religion  as  taught  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  in  the  New  Testament  were  not  framed  and  put  together 
for  the  sake  of  making  the  canonical  books.  The  Bible  is  an  expo- 
sition of  one  side  of  nature :  that  is  to  say,  the  moral  side  of  man's 
relation  to  God,  to  his  fellow-men,  and  to  his  own  destiny,  here  and 
hereafter.  It  is  constructed  out  of  the  experiences  of  the  best  men, 
in  their  respective  ages  of  the  world.  Holy  men  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  but  they  spoke  about  their  experiences 
— about  their  trials,  and  the  results  of  their  trials ;  about  their 
thoughts,  and  the  results  of  their  thinkings.  God  revealed  truth  to 
the  world  through  the  lives  of  men  who  formulated  in  their  own 
minds  great  moral  problems,  and  identified  themselves  therewith. 
And  the  results  they  were  inspired  to  record  and  to  teach.  But 
if  the  Scripture  were  disowned,  or  if  it  were  thrown  away,  it  would 
not  change  the  truth  a  whit — though  your  competency  to  find  it  out 
micrht  be  changed. 

If  a  man  in  the  night,  by  the  light  of  a  lamp,  is  trying  to  make 
out  his  chart,  and  there  is  storm  in  the  heaven,  and  storm  upon  the 
sea,  and  some  one  knocks  that  lamp  out  of  his  hand,  what  is  done  ? 
The  storm  is  above,  and  the  storm  is  below ;  and  the  chart  lies  dark, 
so  that  he  cannot  find  it  out — that  is  all.  If  it  were  daylight  he 
could  see  the  chart  well  enough ;  but  there  being  no  light,  and  the 
lamp  on  which  he  depended  for  light  being  knocked  out  of  his 
hand,  he  cannot  avail  himself  of  that  which  is  before  him. 

And  the  same  is  true  concerning  much  of  the  Bible.  It  is  an 
interpreter.  It  is  a  lamp  to  our  feet  and  a  light  to  our  path.  And 
those  truths  which  have  their  exposition  in  the  Bible,  and  which  are 
a  revelation  of  the  structure  of  the  world,  and  of  the  divine  nature 
and  government,  do  not  depend  for  their  truth  upon  the  Bible  itself. 
They  are  only  interpreted  and  made  plain  by  it.  If  the  world  dis- 
believed Scripture,  they  would  simply  deprive  themselves  of  moral 
eyesight.  It  would  not  change  the  great  truths  of  God  any  more 
than  the  burninsr  of  all  the  scientific  books   in  the  world  wo;ild 


182  TEE  TWO  BEVELATIONS. 

change  the  great  physical  laws — which  science  expounds,  but  does 
not  create.  Science  does  not  depend  on  books.  It  is  founded  in  the 
nature  of  things.  Books  are  the  means  by  which  it  is  brought  to 
our  knowledge. 

So,  truth  does  not  depend  on  the  Bible.  The  Bible  does  not 
create  it,  but  merely  expounds  it,  brings  it  into  practical  shapes, 
and  makes  it  usable  to  men.  And  such  is  the  infinite  wisdom 
and  mercy  of  God,  that  if  you  should  burn  every  Bible  on  the 
globe,  though  much  knowledge  of  truth  would  be  quenched,  yet 
the  world  would  not  lose  a  single  truth.  For  truths  are  organic. 
They  spring  from  the  way  in  which  you  and  I  are  made,  and 
are  bred  together  in  life.  They  belong  to  the  nature  of  things. 
They  were  as  true  ages  ago  as  they  are  now,  though  they  were  not 
then  as  available  to  men  as  they  are  now.  And  the  truths  con- 
tained in  this  guide,  this  directory,  this  exposition  of  moral  truth, 
this  Bible,  can  be  found  outside  of  it,  either  in  principle  or  in  fact. 
One  of  the  best  ways  of  studying  the  Word  of  God,  is  to  com- 
pare it  with  the  things  of  which  it  speaks.  If  we  read  in  the  Word 
of  God  of  rivers,  of  fruitful  trees,  of  mountains,  of  cedars  of  Leb- 
anon, of  the  oak,  of  the  lily  of  the  valley,  or  of  other  things  like 
these,  we  recognize  at  once  the  propriety  of  identifying  and  studying 
them  outside  of  the  Bible,  and  not  inside  of  it.  If  it  speaks  of  a 
lion,  or  a  behemoth,  or  a  serpent,  we  go  to  natural  history  to  find  out 
what  these  names  mean.  We  study  the  nature  of  these  animals ; 
and  then  we  go  back  to  understand  Scripture. 

And  now,  if  we  go  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  it  speaks  of  man, 
and  of  his  dispositions,  his  will,  his  choices,  his  tendencies,  his  char- 
acter, the  results  of  certain  influences  which  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  him,  we  are  then  to  go.  to  nature  itself,  just  as  we  do  in  these 
other  cases,  and  study  to  ascertain  what  man  is,  what  is  his  com- 
position, what  is  the  human  will,  how  it  is  acted  on,  how  it  operates, 
and  what  is  man's  character,  disposition  and  life.  Life  interprets 
the  Bible,  if  one  only  knows  how  to  study  it.  The  everlasting  round 
of  human  nature  and  human  experience  throws  light  upon  the  words 
and  the  passages  of  Scripture. 

We  are  not,  therefore,  to  take  our  interpretation  of  the  Bible, 
and  go  out  and  refuse  to  see  things  as  they  are,  and  cramp  life,  and 
attempt  to  compress  it  into  the  space  which  that  interpretation 
covers  ;  but  we  are  to  give  to  truths-  in  respect  to  men  the  same 
freedom  that  we  give  to  truths  with  i-egard  to  lower  physical  things. 
And  we  are  to  find  them  out  by  going  to  nature,  and  by  approj^riate 
and  judicious  processes  of  study  ascertaining  what  they  are.  Life 
itself  is  the  best  commentary  on  the  Bible. 


TEE  TWO  BEVELATIONS.  183 

So,  then,  whatever  you  find  to  be  true  outside  of  the  Bible,  may 
measure,  may  interpret  to  you,  that  which  is  contained  in  the  Bible. 
If  you  do  not  find  that  to  be  true  in  one  which  you  find  to  be  true 
in  the  other  ;  if  disagreements  between  the  Bible  and  nature  arise, 
they  come  from  a  wrong  interpretation  of  the  one,  or  of  the  other,  or 
of  both.  And  the  history  of  the  matter  is  this :  that  from  the  begin- 
ning, men,  though  they  have  interpreted  the  Bible  according  to 
their  best  light,  have  often  interpreted  it  wrongly,  until  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  external  world  enabled  them  to  take  a  better  view. 

When  men  found  out  that  the  earth  moved  around  the  sun,  when 
the  whole  Copernican  system  was  disclosed,  there  was  a  great  up- 
roar in  the  Christian  world  because  the  new  astronomy  would 
destroy  the  Bible.  But  after  a  while,  either  these  revelations,  or 
men's  constructions  of  the  Bible,  gave  way ;  and  I  need  not  tell  you 
which  gave  way.  When  Rome  made  Galileo  recant,  she  did  not 
blot  out  the  truth  which  he  had  brought  to  light. 

We  remember  that  when  geological  discoveries  came  in  men  were 
in  alarm,  and  said,  "What  is  to  become  of  the  first  chapters  of  Gen- 
esis ?  Has  the  earth  been  created  through  such  long  periods  of 
time  as  the  depositions  of  rock  and  soil  indicate  ?  Why,  the  Bible 
says  that  on  the  first  day  God  made  so  and  so,  and  that  on  the 
second  day  he  made  so  and  so."  They  had  the  whole  order  of  cre- 
ation arranged  like  a  case  of  drawers ;  and  they  could  pull  out  one, 
and  another,  and  another,  with  perfect  regularity  and  precision.  And 
when  these  disclosures  of  science  began  to  be  made,  there  was  a  great 
turmoil  on  the  subject.  But  after  a  while  men  concluded  that  they 
would  call  "days,"  periods  of  time.  And  a  day  might  be  a  thousand 
years,  or  a  hundred  thousand,  or  five  hundred  thousand.  And  they 
said,  "  Well,  the  Bible  does  not  undertake  to  teach  the  science  of 
geology  at  all.  In  Genesis,  we  find  the  order  of  creation  stated ;  and 
that  is  in  accordance  with  modern  geological  teachings ;  but  as  to 
.  *  days,'  they  were  indefinite  periods  of  time."  And  so  biblical  con- 
struction gave  way,  and  not  the  revelations  of  God  in  science. 

More  recently,  there  has  come  up  a  school  of  men  who  are 
alarming  proper-minded  and  sedate  people  in  respect  to  the  origin 
of  man.  We  are  finding  out  who  oiir  forefathers  were.  Lineage,  you 
know,  has  always  been  a  great  thing  in  this  world.  Men  have  been 
eager  to  trace  their  ancestry.  But  there  is  a  point  where  I  think  we 
shall  all  be  willing  to  stop.  There  is  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  man 
which  it  is  not  very  agreeable  to  contemplate,  and  from  which  we 
naturally  shrink.  But  if  a  thing  be  true  outside  of  the  J>iblc,  you 
may  depend  upon  it  that  it  will  show  itself  in  spite  of  you.  What 
God  writes  with  the  hand  that  made  creation,  he  writes  so  that  men 


184  THE  TWO  EEV-ELATIOI^S. 

cannot  rub  it  out.  "When  once  a  seed  has  unfolded  itself,  you  can- 
not throw  back  the  blossom  or  the  fruit  to  the  condition  from  which 
it  came.  And  when  rocks  and  creatures  have  risen  up  and  testified 
as  to  God's  creative  method,  you  cannot  put  back  into  its  germ-state 
the  witness  which  they  bear. 

You  must  make  your  interpretation  of  Scripture  conform  to 
the  revelation  of  God  in  nature.  I  do  not  believe  that  they  contra- 
dict each  other.  I  believe  that  all  the  truths  which  are  recog-  i 
nized  in  the  Scriptures  will  be  found  to  be  susceptible  of  inter- 
pretations that  are  coincident  with  the  essential  facts  of  nature. 
And  scientific  disclosures,  although  they  are  at  first  disturbing,  I  be- 
lieve to  be  the  best  commentators  and  the  best  illuminators  of 
the  truths  of  the  Bible  which  God  has  ever  sent  into  the  world. 
Men,  using  their  light  in  any  age,  construct,  according  to  the 
spirit  of  that  age,  and  according  to  their  limited  powers,  fallible 
interpretations  of  the  great  scheme  of  truth  which  is  contained 
in  the  Bible.  Nature,  as  she  unfolds  more  and  more,  makes 
commentaries  upon  those  interpretations ;  and  the  commentaries 
stand.  I  think  that  by  and  by,  when  the  disclosures  that  are 
being  made  of  what  is  called  the  scheme  of  Evolution  have  come  to 
their  growth,  so  that  we  may  know  exactly  what  they  are — I  think 
that  then  one  of  the  most  striking  things  which  ever  came  to  pass, 
will  be  the  admirable  analogy  with  the  great  facts  of  nature  and 
science  which  will  be  found  in  the  Woi'd  of  God,  For,  although 
there  is  much  yet  to  be  made  known,  it  seems  to  me  that  all  think- 
ing men  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  inform  themselves  about 
these  facts,  believe  in  the  theory  of  evolution,  or  the  theory  that  the 
method  by  which  God  created  the  world  and  the  races,  consists  in 
the  development,  the  unfolding,  of  everything  from  some  anterior 
and  less  perfect  state.  He  would  be  a  bold  man,  and,  as  I  must 
think,  a  rash  one,  who  would,  at  this  stage  of  investigation,  dogma- 
tize on  the  subject  of  the  Origin  of  Man.  Although  many  of  the  ■ 
later  applications  of  the  theory  of  Development  require  ripening,  yet 
they  foreshadow,  I  think,  if  not  the  very  truth,  yet  the  direction  in 
which  the  truth  lies.  And  we  may  as  well  prepare  ourselves  to  ac- 
cept it.     For  one,  I  am  ready. 

Let  us,  in  this  spirit,  look,  for  one  single  moment,  at  the  general 
drift  of  the  Scripture-teaching  by  the  side  of  the  revelations  which 
have  been  made,  or  are  making,  by  science. 

1.  As  to  the  condition  of  mankind.  I  recollect  very  well  when 
the  doctrine  of  total  depravity,  as  founded  in  the  essential  animal 
condition  of  the  race,  excited  great  repugnance  and  horror  among  men 
who,  as  the  result  of  hereditary  endowments  and  long  culture,  had 


THB  TWO  REVELATIONS.  185 

come  to  a  condition  in  which  they  felt  more  the  impulse  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  than  they  did  of  the  basilar  and  the  animal. 
They  felt  it  to  be  a  very  great  reproach  to  say  that  men  were  de- 
praved and  wicked  from  the  root,  and  always.  But  the  "Word  of  God 
still  went  on  declaring,  if  it  declared  anything,  that  at  the  bottom 
there  was  an  animal  nature,  fierce,  intractable,  unspiritual,  without 
God,  and  without  moral  restraint.  That  has  been  the  testimony  of 
ages.  And  what  is  science  now  revealing?  What  if  all  the  theories 
of  Mr.  Darwin,  or  half  of  them,  shall  be  found  true,  will  it  not 
ratify  the  steadfast  testimony  of  the  whole  Word  of  God  as  respects 
the  essentially  animal,  secular,  worldly  nature  of  man  ?  The  Word 
of  God  has  always  borne  this  witness :  that  unless  something  sprouted 
out  of  the  lower  constitution  and  nature  of  man,  and  unfolded  into 
a  higher  spiritual  realm,  true  manhood  would  not  be  attained.  And 
is  it  not  the  tenor  of  the  theories  and  disclosures  which  are  now  oc- 
cupying so  much  of  the  world's  attention,  that  we  spring  from  lower 
forms;  that  we  go  steadily  up  and  up,  higher  and  higher;  that  we 
are  gradually  unfolding  ;  and  that  our  true  nature  is  not  to  be  found 
in  our  far-back  nature,  but  in  our  far-forward  nature  ?  Does  not  the 
Word  of  God  bear  witness,  all  the  way  through,  to  the  essential  avail- 
ability and  educability  of  man  ?  Does  it  not  teach  that  you  can  develop 
him  out  of  lower  forms  into  higher  ones,  and  out  of  the  natural  state 
into  the  spiritual,  saying  that  they  who  sow  to  the  flesh  shall  of  the 
flesh  reap  corruption  ;  that  they  who  sow  to  the  animal  shall  be  ani- 
mal ;  that  they  who  sow  to  the  passions  and  aj^petites  shall  have  the 
misfortunes  and  sufferings  which  these  forces  of  their  nature  yield,  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  who  sow  to  the  Spirit  shall  inherit 
those  blessings  which  come  from  the  Spirit  ? 

2.  Consider  what  is  the  direction  in  which  perfection  lies.  Is 
not  nature  bearing  witness  to  the  essential  power  of  the  reason,  and 
to  the  real  superiority  of  the  moral  constitution  of  man  ?  Is  there 
any  difference  in  schools  on  that  subject  ?  Is  not  that  the  part  of 
man  which  characterizes  him,  and  distinguishes  him  from  all  the 
races  below  him  ?  And  is  it  not  true  that  the  progress  of  man  has 
been  made  in  that  direction  ?  Is  there  anything  more  clearly  set 
forth  than  that,  in  the  Word  of  God,  from  the  earliest  record  to  the 
latest  ?  And  has  not  that  line  of  development  and  growth  in  Scripture 

been  pointed  out  plainly  and  accurately  by  the  pen  of  science  ? 

only  Scriptui-e  makes  many  statements  that  transcend  anything  which 
has  yet  been  found  out  by  science.  For  science,  so  far,  has  not  at- 
tempted to  show,  or  has  not  succeeded  in  showing,  any  connection 
between  the  thought  and  soul  of  man,  and  the  inspiring  power  of 
the  divine  mind.     I  believe  that  by  and  by  it  will  be  demonstrated, 


186  TEE  TWO  BEYBLATI0N8. 

not  only  that  there  belongs  to  man  a  moral  character  and  destiny, 
but  that  there  is  a  divine  power  which  meets  him  on  his  way  up ; 
and  that  it  is  by  the  stimulating  and  enlightening  and  renovating 
power  of  the  divine  mind  that  man  is  escaping  from  his  animal  con- 
dition, and  working  his  way  up  to  the  higher  state  for  which  he  is 
destined. 

3.  The  Scriptures  go  still  further,  and  teach  that  man  will  one 
day  slough  off  the  animal  entirely,  and  leave  that  seed-form  out  of 
which  he  sprouted,  and  take  on  the  blossom-form ;  or,  that  he  will 
evolve  a  nature  higher ;  and  that  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  per- 
fect will  live  together.  Is  not  this  just  the  progress  that  we  should 
expect,  in  close  analogy  with  the  scientific  disclosures  which  have 
been  made  in  regard  to  the  development  of  mankind  ? 

That  is  true,  then,  which  I  stated  in  the  beginning,  that  the  es- 
sential truths  of  Christianity  will  be  found  not  merely  in  Scripture, 
but  outside  of  it ;  and  that  they  are  not  true  because  they  are 
written  there,  that  they  are  not  true  because  the  Bible  says  they 
are  ;  but  that  they  are  contained  in  the  Bible  because  they  are  true, 
and  were  true  before  they  were  recorded. 

And  that  is  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  this  old  Book,  in  which  are 
gathered  through  thousands  of  years  the  experiences  of  men  who 
stated  the  truth  as  it  was  made  known  to  them  in  the  several  ages 
to  which  they  belonged, — that  this  old  Book,  when  in  these  later 
days,  it  is  tried  by  the  latest  discoveries  of  scientific  research,  while 
the  externals  of  it — what  may  be  called  the  husk  and  shell — may 
be  here  and  there  peeled  off,  is  in  its  great  truths  found  to  be  co- 
incident with  these  latest  discoveries. 

If  this  general  view  be  authenticated  by  a  further  examination, 
I  think  that  we  may  dismiss  all  fear,  that  we  may  pray  for  light 
and  development,  and  that  we  may  hail  those  honest  and  earnest 
investigators  for  the  truth  who  are  seeking  to  make  known  to  men, 
from  the  disclosures  of  God's  creation,  what  are  the  footsteps,  what 
is  the  handiwork,  what  are  the  thoughts,  and  what  are  the  methods 
of  God  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

I  am  sorry  to  have  any  antagonism  between  science  and  religion. 
I  am  sorry  that  scientific  men  should  think  it  necessary  to  antag- 
onize religion  from  their  side ;  and  still  more  do  I  grieve  that 
Christian  men  should,  from  church  reasons,  think  it  necessary  to 
antagonize  science.  I  believe  that  both  sides  are  working  toAvard 
the  same  results,  and  that  we  ought  to  seek  to  keep  peace  between 
them.  We  can  accept  the  deductions  of  science,  and  still  maintain 
truth  in  regard  to  the  destiny  of  mankind,  and  the  regeneration  of 


lUE  TWO  BEYELATIOHS.  187  , 

the  souls  of  men,  through  the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  with 
the  co-operation  of  the  human  will. 

More  than  that,  those  persons  do  not  seem  to  me  to  be  wise  who, 
from  any  reason  whatever — from  the  revulsion  of  disgust,  or  from 
perverse  teachings,  or  from  weariness,  or  from  reaction  of  any 
kind — are  disposed  to  throw  the  Bible  aside,  saying,  "  It  was  good 
enough  for  old  times,  but  it  does  not  answer  for  our  day."  We 
cannot  afford  to  throw  away  the  word  of  God.  Many  people  say, 
"  We  have  come  to  new  times ;  we  have  come  to  a  ncAv  inspiration ;  a 
new  dispensation  of  truth  is  ushered  in  ;  and  away  with  the  old 
Bible  !"  Well,  when  we  get  the  new  light ;  when  spiritualism  has 
got  its  work  all  done;  when  there  have  been  told  us  things  deeper, 
things  higher,  things  broader,  things  more  cogent  and  more  satis- 
fying than  those  which  are  recorded  in  the  simple  and  sublime 
sentences  of  the  word  of  God,  thwi  it  will  be  time  enough  to  con- 
sider what  is  to  be  done  with  owy  fathers'  Bible.  I  do  not  pi'opose 
to  throw  it  away  merely  on  the  promise  of  something  better.  I  do 
not  propose  to  throw  it  away  simply  on  the  pretention  of  something 
that  claims  to  be  superior  to  it.  I  do  not  expect  ever  to  throw  it 
away.  A  thousand  years  hence  the  Psalms  of  David  and  the  words 
of  Christ  will  be  as  fresh  and  fruitful  as  now. 

I  know  there  is  that  in  the  Scriptures  which  has  grit  to  it.  I 
know  it  by  this  token :  not  that  wise  men  have  written  so  much,  but 
that  here  is  a  book  which  has  gone  through  tempestuous  ages,  as- 
sailed, buffeted,  cast  hither  and  thither,  and  yet  has  retained  the 
confidence  of  mankind  because  it  has  that  in  it  which  masters  sor- 
row, takes  hold  of  trouble,  gives  strength  where  there  is  weakness, 
and  supplies  an  anchor  to  those  who  are  tempest-tossed.  There 
is  that  in  the  word  of  God  which  has  held  the  world  through  troub- 
lous periods,  which  has  kept  men  steadfast  in  the  midst  of  trials  and 
adversities,  which  supports  the  poor  and  the  ignorant,  taking  hold 
of  the  fundamental  wants  of  human  nature  with  a  power  which  no 
other  literature  and  no  other  thing  ever  did. 

Now,  so  long  as  it  is  full  of  breasts  of  consolation,  let  those  who 
are  in  trouble  nurse  at  it.  If  there  is  any  better  humanity,  if  there  is 
any  higher  morality,  if  there  is  any  deeper  love,  if  there  is  any  more 
potent  disinterestedness,  than  the  Bible  reveals,  I  would  like  to  know 
it.  If  anywhere  there  be  a  literature  of  the  two  worlds — of  the 
present,  and  of  the  hereafter — that  transcends  that  which  is  con- 
tained in  the  Bible,  show  it  to  me.  I  want  the  best  and  truest  thing. 
But  it  seems  to  me  that  those  who  make  haste  to  throw  away 
their  Bible,  are  throwing  away  their  best  good.  It  seems  to  me 
that  those  who  leave  their  Bible  unsounded,  who  leave  its  dejiths 


188  TEE  TWO  BE  VELA  TIONS. 

tmsearched,  do  not  understand  where  their  greatest  treasure  lies. 

And  as  to  those  impertinent  persons,  those  little  specimens  of  men, 

who  wovild  kick  their  Bible  overboard,  because  they  have  found 

out,  by  reading  in  the  corner  of  some  newspaper,  that  the  Scriptures 

are  not  true — I  need  not  waste  words  on  such  bubbles,  that  break  if 

you  touch  them. 

"  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his  own  conceit  ?  there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool 
than  of  him." 

What  sort  of  a  man  is  that  of  whom  it  may  be  said  that  a  fool  is 
more  advantageous  to  the  world  than  he  is  ?  And  yet,  how  many 
men,  how  many  little  whipsters,  there  are,  who  never  read  a  book 
of  Scripture  in  their  life,  who  never  took  the  Bible  according  to 
its  plan,  as  bread  to  satisfy  hunger,  water  to  quench  thirst,  using  it  as 
a  staff  to  hold  up  their  weight  when  they  were  weak,  and  using  it 
as  a  medicine  for  their  soul  when  it  was  sick — how  many  such  per- 
sons there  are,  that  in  their  blindness  and  presumption  reject  this 
blessed  repository  of  that  which  the  human  heart  most  needs  ! 

The  Bible  is  never  so  true  to  me  as  when  I  am  in  trouble  ;  it  is 
never  so  true  to  me  as  when  I  am  conscious  of  my  weakness,  and  of 
the  unsatisfying  nature  of  everything  that  there  is  in  this  world. 
And  hundreds  of  persons  learn  when  brought  into  trouble  to 
esteem  it  and  lean  upon  it,  who  have  despised  it  and  thrown  con- 
tempt upon  it.  Many  a  man  who  has  cursed  it  has  gone  home 
from  the  burial  of  his  companion,  or  the  entombing  of  his  child, 
disconsolate,  and  taken  up  his  mother's  old  Book,  and  dropped  silent 
tears  as  he  read  then  for  the  first  time,  with  an  understanding 
heart,  its  comforting  messages.  Thei-e  is  some  mysterious  emanation 
or  yjower  that  finds  its  way  to  the  soul  in  reading  the  Scriptures 
under  such  circumstances  ;  and  how  ill  can  any  man  afford  to  reject 
that  which  is  such  a  balm  in  his  sorest  need  ! 

Suppose  you  were  to  have  an  insurrection  against  doctors  ?  Sup- 
pose, one  by  one,  yol^  should  throw  them  out  of  the  community  ? 
Suppose  you  should  do  the  work  so  thoroughly  that  there  should 
not  be  a  shred  left  of  these  despotic  men  going  round  and  tell- 
ing people  that  they  must  take  this,  that,  or  the  other  hateful 
drug  ?  Suppose  you  should  not  only  send  these  men  away,  but 
burn  their  books  and  their  medicine  ?  When  the  doctors  were 
gone,  and  the  apothecary  shops  with  all  their  contents  were  des- 
troyed, and  there  was  nothing  left  but  neuralgia,  and  rheumatisms, 
and  dropsies,  and  fevers,  would  you  be  any  better  off  than  you  are 
now? 

Here  is  God's  medicine-book,  full  of  wondrous  remedies,  full  of 
blessed  compounds,  for  the  cure  of  the  diseases  of  the  human  soul, 


THE  TWO  BEVELATI0N8.  189 

and  you  would  get  rid  of  it ;  you  would  throw  it  away  ;  you  would 
destroy  it.  But  do  you  thus  take  away  depravity  ?  Do  you  cure 
unbelief?  Do  you  remove  the  animal  that  is  in  you — the  tiger,  the 
bear,  the  monkey,  the  serpent,  whose  nature  and  spots  appear  here 
and  there.  Do  you  turn  out  all  this  cage  full  of  unclean  beaste  that 
are  in  the  heart,  when  you  cast  the  Bible  from  you  ?  Oil  no,  you  only 
turn  out  their  keepers.  These  that  have  had  the  power  of  restrain- 
ing and  controlling  the  fierce  animals  that  ramp  and  rage  within 
you,  you  put  out  of  the  way;  but  the  animals  themselves  remain  to 
torment  you  still  ?  You  have  given  up  the  Bible  ;  but  the  evils 
which  it  was  sent  to  cure — the  crying  need,  the  down-sagging  trouble, 
the  yearning  asjiiration,  the  lifting  up  of  the  soul  when  touched  by 
the  divine  light  and  influence — where  is  your  solution  and  your  help 
for  these  ? 

In  the  word  of  God  we  have  what  we  need.  Ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  trusting  souls  have  followed  its  directions,  and  found 
them  to  be  true,  and  rejoiced  in  them.  The  drunkard  has  been  led 
to  give  up  his  cup  by  the  influence  which  has  been  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  through  the  Bible.  Tlie  Bible  has  been  instrumental  in 
reclaiming  the  thief.  Lusts  have  been  cured  by  it.  Strong  worldly 
ambitions  have  been  overcome  by  it.  Pride  has  been  softened  by 
it.  It  has  clothed  the  hard  and  rugged  sides  of  life  with  blossoming 
vines  of  beauty.  And  the  world  to-day  is  a  witness  of  the  power 
of  the  word  of  God.  We  see  on  every  hand  evidences  of  its  ability 
to  comfort  and  console  and  bless.  Oh,  how  many  are  dying  and 
have  died  in  the  faith  of  the  word  of  God ! 

And  how  full  of  blessed  associations  this  dear  Book  is  ! 

I  walked  through  the  old  streets  of  London,  where  every  other 
house  has  a  history  such  that  one  might  well  pause  before  it,  and 
ponder  for  hours.  I  walked  along  the  fields  where  many  a 
grand  scene  had  been  enacted.  At  Winchester  I  visited  the  old 
cathedral.  I  went  through  it.  I  would  live  in  it  a  month  if  I  could. 
The  wide  interior  was  filled  with  unimagined  beauty  and  glory. 
That  catliedral  was  built  in  successive  ages  ;  so  that  every  part  of 
the  architecture,  by  the  harmony  of  the  varied  materials  of  which  it 
was  composed,  fitly  represented  how  all  forms  of  religious  thought 
may  be  harmonized  in  one  great  community  of  the  true  Christian 
Church.  I  saw  the  tombs  of  the  old  kings.  Greater  than  they  were 
the  three  great  architects  wlio  had  constructed  this  mighty  cathe- 
dral. It  was  a  museum  of  antiquity.  It  was  full  of  life.  I  trembled 
with  sensibility.    And  the  impression  will  never  die  out  of  my  mind. 

But  what  is  that  cathedral  compared  with  this  silent  cathedral, 
the  Bible,  in  whose  aisles  have  sounded  the  footsteps,  not  only  of 


190  THE  TWO  EEVELATI0N8. 

kings  and  emperors,  but,  from  generation  to  generation,  the  foot- 
steps of  the  little  child,  and  the  mother  and  father  of  the  household; 
and  the  footsteps  of  multitudes  upon  multitudes  of  worthies  of  the 
church,  all  the  way  back,  a  hundred  yeai's,  five  hundred  years,  ten 
hundr'ed  years,  fifteen  hundred  years  ;  and  the  footsteps  of  un- 
counted heroes  who  have  gone  up  to  heaven  consoled  and  enlight- 
ened by  the  pages  of  the  word  of  God  ? 

How  venerable  is  this  Book  !  How  full  of  precious  memories  is 
it  !  How  does  it  not  only  teach  us  the  way  of  life,  but  group  about 
itself  the  most  significant  features  of  modern  history  I  And  are  we, 
with  the  sciolist's  ignorance,  with  unvenerating  contempt,  with  ill- 
omened  presumption,  to  ostracize  the  Bible,  to  expunge  its  truths, 
to  .drive  it  out  of  oxir  library,  and  to  live  without  its  light  ? 

My  young  friends,  do  not  be  over-zealous  to  catch  up  the  latest 
things.  Do  not  abandon  the  faith  of  your  fathers  on  the  strength 
of  the  popular  representations  which  men  make  in  regard  to  what 
is  true  and  what  is  false.  I  read  as  well  as  you  do.  I  think  I  am  as 
honest  as  you  are.  I  shall  take  the  truth,  wherever  it  leads  me. 
This  has  been  my  determination  thus  far.  And  having  been  now 
for  more  than  forty  years  an  ardent  follower  of  truths  as  they  have 
been  revealed  by  science  in  respect  to  the  human  mind,  and  in 
respect  to  all  the  great  elements  of  social  life,  I  have  changed,  in 
many  regards,  my  interpretation  of  the  word  of  God,  but  not  my 
faith  in  the  Bible.  And  I  believe  it  far  more  firmly  now  than  I  ever 
did  before.  To  me  science  is  a  ratifier  of  the  truths  of  the  Bible. 
And  I  find  them  substantiated  by  the  latest  discoveries  of  science. 
I  do  not  see  'any  more  than  any  others  ;  but  I  think  I  foresee,  nebu- 
lously, that  there  is  going  to  arise  a  Christian  era  when  the  claims 
of  the  Bible  will  seem  more  reasonable ;  when  its  power,  when  its 
great  elemental  forces,  cleansed  from  much  of  superstition  and  much 
of  ecclesiasticism,  will  have  an  authority  which  they  are  not  per- 
mitted to  have  now. 

Hold  fast,  then, — not  to  forms  and  ceremonies  (which  are  mutable 
things  ;  which  are  optional  ;  which  are  to  be  used  if  they  benefit 
you,  and  which  are  not  to  be  used  if  they  do  not  benefit  you)  ;  but 
to  the  great  essential  truths  of  human  character,  and  human  neces- 
sity, and  divine  interposition  ;  to  the  great  outlines  of  destiny  and 
duty  ;  to  the  guide  as  to  the  way  in  which  you  are  to  live,  as  to  the 
part  of  your  nature  which  you  are  to  cultivate  ;  to  the  directions  in 
respect  to  reason,  and  moral  sense,  and  faith,  and  hope,  and,  above 
all — luminously  above  all,  as  the  beginning  and  the  ending,  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  law — to  the  blessed  commands  in  respect  to  love. 

Cast  not  away  your  faith  in  these  sublime  teachings  of  the  word 


THE  TWO  BEVEL ATIONS.  191 

of  God.  I  exhort  you  not  only  not  to  cast  them  away,  but  to  verify 
their  truth  in  yourselves.  Be  wise  unto  salvation  ;  for  ere  long  the 
mists  will  gather  about  your  eyes.  Ere  long  will  come  that  day 
when  you  shall  hang  between  the  hither  and  the  thither  spheres,  and 
this  world  will  die  out  of  your  sight,  and  its  sounds  will  no  lono-er 
impress  themselves  on  your  ear.  And  it  is  of  vital  importance  that 
you  should  have  that  aim,  that  inspiration,  that  attraction,  that  shall 
lead  you  away  from  the  clod,  from  the  animal,  that  shall  bring  you 
into  the  spirit-world,  and  make  you  a  child  of  glory  forever  and  for- 
ever. 

Whatever  you  lose,  do  not  lose  heaven.  Whatever  you  give  up, 
give  not  up  your  God.  And  then  he  will  never  leave  you  nor  for- 
Bake  you ;  and  you  shall  stand  in  Zion  and  before  Him, 


192  THE  TWO  BE  VELA  TIONS. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Thou  holy  and  blessed  God !  vouchsafe  to  us  a  sense  of  thy  presence.  And 
as  we  pan  not  rise  to  thee,  nor  help  ourselves  by  our  senses,  grant  unto  us 
that  divine  influence  by  which  the  knowledge  of  God  is  imparted  to  us. 
Awaken  in  us  thp  hidden  and  spiritual  life.  May  we  feel  in  the  soul  the 
pressure  of  the  diviuc  lian  J — the  presence  of  the  divine  heart.  May  joy  be 
breathed  upon  us  by  thy  Spirit.  May  we  find  peace  diffused  from  thee. 
May  we  be  able  to  dismiss  all  thoughts  that  harass;  all  doubts  that  cloud; 
all  sorrows  that  prieve.  May  we  be  able  to  come  into  thy  presence  rejoicing. 
And  as  little  cbildren  trust  their  parents,  so  may  we  trust  thee.  May  our 
hearts  lean  upon  thine.  Oh,  that  we  might  know  thy  will  more  perfectly  I 
Oh,  that  we  might  be  delivered  from  the  thrall  of  error,  and  from  every- 
thing which  misleads!  Oh,  that  we  might  know,  with  the  simplicity  of 
truth  itself,  what  is  the  law  respecting  ourselves  1  Oh,  that  we  might  have 
insight  Into  thy  word ;  that  we  might  know  how  to  detect  its  truths ;  that 
we  might  know  how  to  interpret  them  into  our  life,  so  that  they  shall 
become  the  habits  of  our  soul !  Oh !  that  we  might  have  that  poverty  of 
spirit  which  shall  bring  a  true  humility !  Oh,  that  we  might  have  that 
purity  of  heart  through  which  we  shall  see  God !  Oh,  that  we  might  have 
that  disposition  which  shall  make  us  the  children  of  God ! 

We  long  for  all  those  accomplishments  of  the  soul  which  shall  bring  us 
into  intimate  relationship  and  holy  concourse  with  the  justified  spirits  in 
thy  heavenly  kingdom.  We  do  not  deprecate  thine  earth,  though  thou 
thyself  hast  laid  it  aside.  It  is  not  to  escape  pain  and  punishment  that  we 
strive.  We  know  that  between  us  and  utter  jeopardy  thou  dost  stand  with 
infinite  mercy.  We  leave  to  thee  the  knowledge  of  the  unknown.  We 
leave  to  thee  those  great  influences  which  man  does  not  discern  and  cannot 
comprehend.  We  desire  to  be  brought  into  the  knowledge  of  God,  even 
though  we  do  not  understand  him ;  and  into  the  knowledge  of  our  life, 
though  all  thy  government  and  thy  paths  through  the  universe  are  not 
yet  known  to  us.  Give  us  this  believing  heart ;  this  trusting  spirit;  this 
loving  nature ;  this  obedient  disposition. 

We  pray,  O  Lord!  that  thou  wilt  remember  all  who  are  seeking  to 
help  themselves.  And  if  any  are  discouraged,  if  any  feel  that  the  way  is 
too  great,  or  that  the  path  is  too  narrow  and  too  steep,  grant  them  hope; 
and  may  they  by  hope  be  kept  from  going  back  again  and  betaking  them- 
selves to  unworthy  ideals  of  life.    May  none  be  weary  in  well-doing. 

If  there  be  any  that  are  shaken  in  their  faith,  from  the  grounds  of  their 
fathers,  and  from  their  own  inheritance  of  belief,  and  are  perplexed  and 
distressed  in  mind,  and  wrestle  with  questions  which  will  not  be  settled,  and 
which  they  cannot  manage,  Lord,  we  pray  that  thou,  who  didst  come  to  thy 
disciples  when  they  were  tossed  upon  the  sea  in  a  great  storm,  and  in  the 
night,  and  didst  still  the  waves,  and  bring  calm  and  peace,  wilt  appear  to 
them.'  Wilt  thou  draw  near  to  all  that  are  thus  shaken ;  to  all  that  are 
tempest-tossed  and  not  comforted.  If  there  be  those  who  are  seeking  to 
restrain  mighty  and  powerful  inward  dispositions,  knowing  what  is  right, 
and  striving  for  right  things,  and  yet  with  constant  discouragement, 
their  purposes  dashed  down  by  the  impetuous  strength  of  their  lower  nature, 
O  Lord!  art  thou  not  on  their  side?  Wilt  thou  not  be  patient  with  them? 
Wilt  thou  not  accept  their  desire,  and  help  them  to  desire  even  more,  and  to 
more  utterly  strive?  And  may  they  be  willing,  as  it  were,  to  pluck  off  the 
right  hand,  to  pluck  out  the  right  eye,  and  to  die  rather  than  yield.  Help 
them ;  for  great  is  their  need  of  help. 

Oh,  how  mighty  is  pride  1    Oh,  how  strong  is  avarice  1    Ob,  how  insatm- 


TEll  TWO  EEVJELAIIONS.  193 

ble  is  the  lust  of  praise  1  Oh,  how  imperious  are  the  appetites  and  the  pas- 
Bions  of  our  nature !  Lord,  thou  knowest  altogether  what  we  are.  For  such 
thou  didst  come  forth.  For  such  thou  didst  suffer  and  die.  And  now,  in 
the  struggle  which  is  begun  in  men,  wilt  thou  forsake  them?  Wilt  thou 
not  give  tliem  thy  Spirit  to  help  them  in  every  time  of  need,  and  with  every 
temptation  open  the  door  of  escape  ?  Grant  that  there  may  be  a  believing 
and  faith-bearing  life  in  every  one  of  them. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  be  with  those  who  have  escaped  from  the  snare, 
and  who  are  seeking  with  might  and  main  to  flee  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
arrows  of  temptation.  Speed  them,  and  put  thy  shield  above  them,  and 
deliver  them  from  their  adversary. 

We  pray,  O  Lord !  if  there  be  those  who  are  weak,  and  who  lift  not  up  so 
much  as  their  eyes  to  heaven,  but  beat  upon  their  breast,  and  say,  God  be 
merciful  to  us,  sinners,  that  thou  wilt  be  more  than  merciful  to  them.  Meet 
them,  though  they  are  yet  afar  off.  Throw  thine  arms  about  them.  Call 
them  thine  own,  and  bring  them,  wondering  and  amazed  at  thy  clemency, 
back  into  obedience  and  into  love. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  be  with  those  who  have  come  lato 
in  life  into  the  way  of  piety,  and  who,  having  long  incarnated  sin  in  their 
dispositions  and  lives,  are  seeking  now  to  throw  it  out  again.  O  Lord !  we 
pray  that  their  faith  may  not  fail  them.  We  pray  that  they  may  now  serve 
thee  with  all  the  eagerness  and  energy  and  whole-heartedness  with  which 
they  have  served  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  Make  them  happy 
illustrations  of  thy  grace ;  may  evil  and  abandoned  men  take  courage 
by  them,  and  know  that  there  is  a  way  by  which  they  may  be  restored  to 
Jesus,  and  to  spiritual  life,  and  to  truth,  and  to  honor,  and  to  safety,  and  to 
everlasting  glory. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  revive  thy  work  in  the  hearts  of  those  that  have 
grown  cold,  and  in  the  hearts  of  all  that  have  fallen  away  from  their  faith. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  excise  inquiry  and  anxiety  in  the 
hearts  of  those  that  are  without  thee,  and  that  are  careless,  and  that  are 
sporting  with  things  that  are  of  eternal  interest. 

We  implore  that  thy  kingdom  may  come  in  this  congregation.  May  all 
those  that  are  laboring  in  word  or  doctrine  be  greatly  comforted,  and 
greatly  inspired  by  thy  spirit ;  and  may  they  spread  thy  truth  everywhere. 

Build  up  thy  Churches.  May  thy  cause  prevail,  and  all  this  land  be  filled 
with  the  power  of  thy  truth,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  see  the  light  of 
thy  coming.  May  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth,  in  which  dwells  right- 
eousness, appear,  and  may  the  Lord  reign  in  all  the  world. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  everlasting. 
Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  to  bless  the  word  of  truth  which  has  been 
spoken  to-night.  We  pray  that  we  may  be  wise,  and  give  heed  to  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  us,  and  as  it  is  in  the  world  around  about  us.  We  thank  thee  for 
that  truth  which  has  forerun  and  outrun  science.  We  thank  thee  that  now 
thou  art  stirring  up  so  many  to  search  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  dis- 
cover the  secrets  of  its  structure ;  and  that  the  light  coming  thence  is  light 
bearing  consolation.  We  thank  thee  for  all  that  the  truth  of  thy  word  has 
done,  and   for  what  it  is  doing.      We  thank  thee  for  what  it  has  been 


194  THB  TWO  BEVELATIONS. 

in  the  family.  We  thank  thee  that  it  has  been  an  inspiration  for  liberty, 
and  for  all  that  is  right  and  just  among  men.  We  pray  that  thy  truth 
may  have  free  course  to  run  and  be  glorified.  And  may  all  that  which  is 
pure,  and  which  has  power  in  the  human  soul,  be  extended  throughout  the 
earth. 

Wilt  thou  hear  us  in  these  our  petitions,  and  accept  of  us,  for  Christ  Jesus' 
sake.    Amen. 


X. 

GoD's  Workmanship  in  Man. 


Thou  hast  called  us,  our  Father;  and  behold,  here  we  are  awaiting  the 
message  of  thy  grace ;  for  we  need  love  and  pity  and  pardon ;  and  no  man, 
none  on  earth,  can  minister  them  unto  us;  and  no  one  in  heaven  except 
thee.  But  thou  canst  forgive  sin.  Thou  canst  lift  from  death  unto  life. 
Thou  canst  make  joy  abound  where  sorrow  has  brooded.  Thou  caast  cleanse 
and  purify  the  heart.  We  thank  thee  for  all  the  mercies  of  thy  providence ; 
for  the  bounty  of  the  day.  But  we  need  other  help  in  the  soul.  And  we 
come  here  this  morning  to  ask  these  chief  est  gifts  of  thy  sovereign  love— the 
cleansing  and  enlightening  influence  of  thy  Spirit.  May  we  have  the  com- 
fort of  thy  conscious  presence  and  thy  benediction.  Grant,  our  heavenly 
Father,  that  the  services  of  the  sanctuary  may  honor  and  bless  thee. 
Though  our  lips  be  impure,  and  our  hearts  be  unenlightened,  and  ovu" 
thoughts  be  unable  to  reach  a  conception  of  thy  glory,  accept  the  little 
praiso  and  thanksgiving  which  through  thy  grace  and  mercy  we  can  offei 
thee.  Bless  us,  both  here  and  in  our  homes.  We  ask  it  for  Ckrist  Jesus' 
sake.   Am&n» 


GOD'S  ¥ORKMAISHIP  IN  MAN. 


*'  For  by  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith ;  and  that  not  of  yourselves  > 
it  is  the  gift  of  God :  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast.  For  we  are 
his  workmanship,  created  in  Jesus  Christ  unto  good  works,  which  God  hath 
before  ordaiutd  that  we  should  walk  in  them. — Eph.  ii.,  8-10. 


It  seems  very  much  as  if  the  apostle  had  a  conception  of  a  pos- 
sible manhood  that  altogether  outran  any  notions  of  morality  which 
prevailed  at  that  time — indeed,  that  had  not  even  been  revealed. 
The  line  of  development  that  seemed  to  open  before  him  in  and 
through  Jesus  Christ  was  one  which  was  impossible  except  to  a 
soul  which  was  drawn  by  the  power  of  God.  It  was  to  be  a  life 
and  character  wrought,  not  by  human  volition,  however  it  might 
concur  and  incidentally  coojjerate,  in  an  inefficient  way.  But  that 
which  he  saAV  as  the  true  manhood  was  so  large  and  so  far  in  ad- 
vance of  anything  that  existed,  that  he  speaks  of  it  as  being  the 
workmanship  of  God,  through  Jesus  Christ. 

We  are  to  be  saved,  not  by  what  we  are  worth  ourselves  ;  not 
by  that  which  we  have  attained.  Looking  at  ourselves  in  some 
sense  as  a  piece  of  art,  a  picture,  a  statue,  or  an  exquisite  piece  of 
machinery,  we  are  not  worth  saving.  In  and  of  ourselves  there  is 
nothing  worth  preservation.  And  all  the  work  that  we  have  ever 
done  on  our  own  character  and  nature  does  not  amount  to  any  con- 
siderable value.  If  we  are  saved,  it  will  not  be  because  of  that  which 
we  have  succeeded  in  doing ;  it  will  be  because  of  that  which  has 
been  done  upon  us  and  in  us  by  another  and  higher  Artist-hand.  If 
we  inherit  salvation  in  the  life  which  is  to  come,  if  we  enter  upon  a 
life  of  immortality  in  blessedness,  it  will  be  because  we  are  saved  by 
grace. 

n  Now,  I  understand  by  (/race  simply  generosity,  divine  goodness 
in  the  conferring  of  benefit,  in  distinction  from  divine  justice.  It 
answers  very  much  to  what  Ave  should  call  liberality  or  generosity. 

A  man  of  property  in  New  York  is  presented  every  year  with 
his  tax-bill.  And  he  does  not  pay  it  out  of  generosity  :  he  pays  it 
because  he  must — because  it  is  right.     It  is  a  debt ;  he  owes  it ;  and 

SuNPAT  Moia^iNG,    May  14,  1871.    Lesson:   IIeb.  IV.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Ck)lleo- 
tion) :  Kos.  130,  905, 1185. 


198  GOiyS  WOEKMANSHIP  IN  MAN. 

he  pays  it  out  of  a  sense  of  duty.  But  we  hear  very  soon  that  he 
has  endowed  an  academy,  or  that  he  has  built  up  a  professorship. 
He  has  given  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  lay  foundations  of  education 
which  shall  go  on  instructing  future  generations.  But  this  was  not 
paying  a  debt.  lie  was  not  obliged  to  do  it.  Nobody  had  a 
right  to  present  any  claim  to  him  of  that  sort.  He  did  not  do  this 
thing  from  the  same  feeling  that  he  paid  the  bill  which  the  tax- 
gatherer  presented  to  him.  He  gave  the  money  out  of  his  generosity. 
And  we  consider  that  a  very  high  type  of  character. 

Now,  when  we  read  that  we  are  to  be  saved  by  grace,  I  take  it 
that  God  does  not  look  on  our  workmanship  in  ourselves,  and  say, 
"  Well,  all  things  considered,  that  soul  deserves  to  be  saved,  and  I 
will  be  equitable,  and  save  it."  No ;  I  understand  that,  looking 
upon  men,  God  finds  nothing  in  them  that  in  and  of  itself  is  worth 
saving — that  there  is  no  debt,  no  justice,  that  requires  that  anything 
in  them  should  be  saved.  But,  nevertheless,  I  understand  that  God, 
looking  on  universal  being,  says,  "  I  will  save  men."  Why  ?  Just 
because  He  feels  like  it.  His  goodness  impels  him  to  it.  He  does 
it  because  his  heart  is  the  seat  of  royalty  in  benevolence.  It  is  a  grace 
of  God,  it  is  a  gift  of  God,  out  and  out. 

If  you  consider  that  this  is  the  ground  on  which  every  human 
being  is  saved,  if  saved  at  all,  it  reflexly  puts  a  very  dark  coloring, 
a  very  low  estimate,  upon  the  value  of  human  nature,  and  human 
character,  and  human  conduct.  It  certainly,  by  implication,  makes 
man  seem  very  sinful,  and  very  crude  and  imperfect — as  he  is.  Ex- 
cept through  the  generosity  of  God  there  would  be  very  little 
hope,  and  there  should  be  very  little  expectation,  that  any  would  be 

S9,ved. 

The  workmanship  that  is  here  spoken  of  is  conduct,  and  its  rela- 
tion to  character-building.  The  vast  majority  of  men  have  no  ideal 
of  character,  whatever.  Taking  the  race  throughout,  the  greater 
portion,  I  suppose,  scarcely  have  a  conception  of  what  we  mean  by 
the  word  character.     They  have  a  very  few — and  these  the  very 

lowest rules  for  external  action.     That  is  the  height  to  which  they 

attain. 

If  you  go  within  the  circle  of  light  where  the  Christian  idea  has 
raised  up  a  conception  of  character,  and  where  it  has  been  advanced 
throuo-h  some  stages,  implying  the  moral  condition  of  all  the  pri- 
mary faculties  of  a  man's  soul,  their  habits  and  their  tendencies  ;  if 
you  take  different  persons  that  have  this  educated  idea  of  character, 
and  then  measure  human  nature,  you  will  find  it  to  be  very  low.  If 
you  examine  it  by  any  true  standard  or  ideal  of  measurement  which 
the  Gospel  itself  affords,  you  will  find  it  tobe  so  low  that,  as  you  go 


GOB'S  WOBKMANSniP  IN  MAN.  199 

on  from  step  to  step  in  the  investigation,  I  think  you  will  bear  -wit- 
ness that  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  is  worth  saving. 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  nothing  there  which  may  not  be 
pitiable,  or  that  may  not  address  itself  as  a  motive  to  divine  compas- 
sion. I  simply  mean  that,  as'considered  in  and  of  itself,  the  more 
you  look  at  human  nature — and  that,  too,  in  its  best  estate — the  less 
reason  have  you  to  feel  that  a  man  deserves  salvation  on  account 
of  his  own  goodness  and  righteousness.  I  mean  not  only  that  men 
are  sinful  once,  but  that  from  end  to  end  of  their  life  they  are  so 
sinful,  the  style  of  their  character  is  so  low,  the  habit  of  their  devel- 
opment is  so  poor,  the  nature  of  their  individual  action  is  so  limited, 
or  so  mixed,  or  so  imperfect,  or  so  mean,  or  so  sullied,  that  whether 
looked  at  in  detail,  or  comprehensively,  every  one  of  them  must 
needs  say  of  himself,  "  If  I  am  saved,  it  will  not  be  on  account  of  any 
good  that  is  in  me,  but  on  account  of  God's  mercy  to  my  poorness, 
to  my  poverty,  and  to  my  wickedness." 

Let  us,  then,  look  a  little  at  what  may  be  fairly  expected  of  man 
— at  what  the  ideal  man  applied  to  the  real  man  will  develop. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  very  clear  that  among  the  primary  duties 
is  that  of  bringing  out  into  strength  and  fullness  and  energy  every 
part  of  that  nature  which  God  has  given  us  in  the  talents  that  are 
committed  to  our  trust,  to  trade  ujDon — if  you  employ  a  commercial 
figure,  or  in  the  seed  that  he  has  given  us,  to  plant  and  develop — 
if  you  take  the  figure  of  husbandry.  No  superfluous  part  is  given 
to  the  mind.  It  is  large.  It  is  various.  The  faculties  which  are 
comprised  in  what  we  call  the  human  mind,  or  the  human  soul,  not 
only  are  many,  but  are  related  to  each  other  in  such  a  multitude 
of  ways  as  to  constitute  a  complex  organism,  every  part  of  which  is 
to  have  given  to  it  its  full  value  and  force,  and  its  proper  educa- 
tion. 

Now,  in  point  of  fact,  not  one  fifth  part  of  the  average  of  the 
mind  of  man  is  developed  at  all.  If  the  human  body  were  to  be 
developed  as  the  human  mind  is,  we  should  have  monstrous  feet,  and 
monstrous  legs,  and  monstrous  hands,  and  a  monstrous  stomach,  and 
a  little  button  of  a  head  surmounting  them.  We  have  all  the  basilar 
instincts  in  power  among  men.  Whatever  implies  appetite,  or  pas- 
sion, or  force,  or  executiveness — all  cunning,  all  deceitful ness,  all 
those  tendencies  by  which  the  lower  animal  nature  either  conserves 
or  defends  itself — these  elements  arc  strong  in  men  without  school- 
ing. 

The  social  instincts  are  next  strong,  but  irregular.  They  are 
without  any  systematic  development.  The  intellect  is  comparatively 
feeble  here.     Only  parts  are  developed ;  and  those  are  parts  that 


200  GOiyS  WOBKMANSEIP  IN  MAN. 

-'^ 
have  some  relation  to  physical  and  profitable  uses.  The  moral  nature 
of  most  men  is  almost  terra  incognita.     That  part  of  the  human  soul 
which  lies  the  most  nearly  in  communion  with  God  is  desolate. 

As  you  go  from  the  high  estate  of  man  to  the  animal  below  him, 
you  find  that  strength  increases,  usually,  in  that  ratio.  This  is 
true  of  men  generically.  The  best  part  of  the  human  soul  is  un- 
cultivated. If  it  acts  at  all,  it  acts  irregularly — it  acts  without  sys- 
tem and  without  plan,  under  special  -provocation,  or  inducement,  or 
motive. 

So  that,  if  you  look  at  the  average  condition  of  men,  even  in 
civilized  countries  ;  if  you  take  an  inventory  of  men  in  the  pro- 
fessions and  trades,  through  towns  and  villages — men  that  are  very 
honest  and  very  excellent,  as  it  is  said,  and  as  the  world  goes — if  you 
take  an  inventory  of  such  men,  and  estimate  how  much  there  is  of 
them,  what  are  they  ?  They  are  living  in  their  lower  nature.  They 
are  populous  there.  There,  there  is  no  lack  X)i  furniture.  But  as  you 
rise  up  from  their  lower  stories  toward  their  higher,  at  every  step 
there  is  less  and  less  furniture,  and  more  and  more  desolation ;  and 
the  top  story  is  the  worst  of  all  for  emptiness. 

This  view  is  not  itself  so  piteous  as  the  next  consideration. 
Not  only  is  every  single  faculty  in  the  human  mind  to  be  developed, 
and  educated,  and  made  bright,  but  there  is  to  be  a  harmonization 
of  the  faculties  of  the  mind.  There  is  to  be  a  harmonious  organ- 
ization of  all  the  mental  powers.  And  it  is  here,  perhaps,  more 
than  anywhere  else,  that  we  see  how  low  man's  civilization  is,  and 
how  exceedingly  low  is  his  religious  development.  If  you  look  at 
that  part  of  man's  nature  that  is  more  closely  allied  to  the  animal 
economy,  and  which  I  have  been  accustomed  to  call  his  basilar  na- 
ture ;  and  if  then,  above  this,  you  consider  that  development  of  a 
man's  faculties  which  may  be  called  his  social  or  afectional  nature, 
by  which  he  is  allied  to  his  fellows ;  and  if,  then,  above  this,  you 
consider  what  may  be  called  his  moral  or  ethical  nature,  which  in- 
cludes reason,  and  all  the  spiritual  intuitions,  as  well  as  the  ordinary 
moral  sentiments — if  you  take  into  consideration  that  each  one  of 
these  departments  is  itself  complex,  that  it  is  made  up  of  many 
separate  faculties,  the  question  of  organization  becomes  one  of  ex- 
treme importance. 

There  must  be  some  direction  given  to  the  mind.  There  must  be 
something  like  unity  between  the  difiierent  faculties,  or  the  mind 
will  be  at  discord  with  itself,  pulling  in  various  directions.  It  will 
be  full  of  alternations.  There  will  be  that  in  it  Avhich  resembles  the 
action  of  the  waves  of  the  sea,  where  one  wave  follows  another,  rub- 
bing out  the  sand-marks  that  it  makes.  And  life  will  be  full  of  dis- 
turbances. 


GOD'S  WOBKMANSHIP  IN  MAN.  201 

Now,  men  do  harmonize  their  nature.  One  class  of  men  will  be 
found  to  give  all  the  power  of  their  being  to  their  basilar  instincts 
— to  their  passions  and  appetites.  Every  other  part  is  subdued 
by  these  instincts.  The  whole  force  that  is  in  them — whatever 
there  is  that  is  good  in  their  higher  nature — in  their  reason  and 
their  moral  sentiments — lends  itself  to  give  impetus  to  their  lower 
nature.  They  are  strong  and  mighty,  and,  relatively,  well-nigh 
omnipotent  in  their  physical  tendencies.  And  so  they  have  very 
little  quarrel  with  themselves.  They  have  a  line  or  direction ;  they 
have  organization  and  discipline ;  and  there  is  hardly  anything  in 
them  that  ever  rebels.  It  is  their  passional  nature  that  directs  the 
economy  ;  that  lays  out  the  campaign ;  and  all  the  rest  of  their  na- 
ture adds  its  force  to  this  lower  part. 

So  you  shall  find  men  with  art,  with  music,  with  beauty,  with 
every  kind  of  noble  instrument,  carrying  out  the  most  infernal  pur- 
poses. You  shall  find  them  making  hideous  resorts  and  dens,  and 
garnishing  them  with  all  manner  of  attractive  elements,  merely  for 
the  sake  of  better  serving  the  animal  nature  of  men.  And  there  is 
harmony ;  there  is  unity  ;  there  is  subordination ;  only  the  highest 
is  serving  the  lowest.  All  that  is  divinest,  all  that  is  nearest  angelic 
in  its  possibilities,  has  been  brought  down  and  put  under  livery  to 
that  which  is  carnal  and  animal.  And  the  manhood  is  prisoner  to 
the  animalhood  in  man. 

Then,  here  and  there,  just  the  reverse  takes  place.  There  are 
many  individual  instances  of  persons  who  have  given  the  dominance 
to  their  reason  and  to  their  true  moral  sentiments.  That  which  is 
beautiful,  that  which  is  true,  that  which  is  just,  that  which  is  pure 
and  imaginative — all  these  things  are  to  them  the  chief  ends  of  life 
For  these  ends  they  live  :  and  they  have  so  subordinated  the  whole 
of  their  minds  that  all  their  social  affections  work  toward  these 
ends,  and  all  their  lower  nature  is  auxiliary  to  them.  Every  j^art 
of  the  man,  the  whole  force  of  his  being,  works  through  reason  into 
moral  sentiment,  and,  through  that,  by  faith,  into  the  invisible.  And 
he  is  harmonized.  His  highest  sentiments  are  put  in  a  i^osition  of 
dominance,  and  everything  below  them  works  potently  up  toward  it. 

Now,  intermediate  between  these  two  classes  stand  the  great 
mass  of  mankmd.  They  have  no  harmonization  whatever,  as  a  class 
of  men.  They  are  good  to-day,  and  bad  to-morrow.  Circumstances — 
not  any  inward  habit,  nor  any  volition  in  themselves — determine 
their  course.  They  are  swept  as  the  tide  sweeps  the  straw  and 
leaves  that  float  upon  it.  They  are  without  any  definite  moral  pur- 
pose. They  are  without  any  distinct  social  object.  They  are  with- 
out any  decided  animal  tendencies.  If  they  are  under  circumstances 


202  GOD'S  WOBKMANSEIF  IN  MAN, 

where  the  inducements  are  strongest  toward  the  flesh,  they  yield  in 
that  direction.  If  at  other  times  the  social  affections  are  in  the 
ascendancy,  and  circumstances  are  favorable  to  the  development  of 
these,  they  act  accordingly.  If,  as  is  now  and  then  the  case,  influ- 
ences work  with  great  emphasis  on  their  moral  nature,  they  respond 
to  that.  But  their  action  is  alternative.  It  is  inconsistent.  There 
is  nothing  fixed  about  it.  Their  mind  is  not  organized  around  any 
one  center.  Sometimes  the  power  is  in  one  place,  and  sometimes  in 
another.     Now  one  part  leads,  and  now  another. 

Tliis  is  descriptive  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  If  you  look  at 
men  with  the  idea  of  drill,  and  of  the  harmonization  of  every  part 
of  the  mind,  you  will  find  that  their  workmanship  is  very  poor ;  that 
they  have  made  very  little  out  of  themselves  yet;  and  that  that 
which  has  been  made  of  them,  as  I  described  in  the  second  instance, 
has  been  wrought  out  by  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  No  man 
lives  in  this  world  who  has  wi'ought  out  supreme  harmony  in  his 
nature  around  about  his  moral  sense,  except  by  the  inspiration  of 
God.  I  shall  believe  that  there  are  blossoms  on  the  ground  and 
blossoms  in  the  air  when  the  sun  is  blotted  out,  quicker  than  I  shall 
believe  that  there  are  any  high  developments  of  character  except  by 
the  direct  influence  of  the  soul  of  God.  All  really  good  and  high  in 
fluences  drop  down  from  the  bosom  of  God  into  the  heart  of  man. 
We  have  enough  in  the  physical  world  to  teach  the  human  body ; 
we  have  enough  in  society  to  teach  man's  social  aflections ;  but  the 
moral  nature  of  man  must  have  its  pabulum  directly  from  God  him- 
self. And  whatever  is  good  in  man  is  not  his  own  workmanship. 
It  is  wrought  in  him  through  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  God's  Spirit  that 
is  working  in  us. 

The  great  mass  of  men  have  not  submitted  themselves  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  if  you  look  on  human  nature  as  it  averages  in  so- 
ciety, you  will  find  not  only  that  there  is  not  the  development  of 
every  faculty,  but  that  there  is  not  the  carrying  uj)  to  their  full 
power  of  any  of  the  faculties. 

Nor,  secondly,  is  there  any  harmonization  of  all  these  powers. 
They  are  out  of  joint,  irregular,  discordant,  and  for  the  most  part 
unproductive.  We  are  not  to  confound  the  success  of  men  in  doing 
certain  things  outside  of  them  with  their  success  in  building  up  their 
ownselves.  A  man  may  build  a  city,  and  yet  not  build  himself  A 
man  may  excel  in  an  art,  or  in  a  science,  or  in  some  department  of 
mechanics,  or  in  any  of  the  humble  relations  of  labor ;  a  man  may 
achieve  success  in  certain  directions,  and  these  elements  may  indi- 
rectly be  to  him  educators ;  but,  after  all,  when  you  come  to  look 
back  at  his  manhood,  at  what  he  actually  is,  the  more  you  look  at 


GOD'S  WORKMANSHIP  IN  MAN.  203 

him,  the  more  you  see  that  his  success  lias  not  been  very  consider- 
able, and  that  he  has  not  much  to  boast  of.  j 

If  you  look  one  stej^  further  than  this,  you  see  not  only  that  the 
individual  elements  of  the  mind  are  left  undeveloped  and  untrained; 
not  only  that  the  whole  mind  is  left  without  any  organization,  or 
with  a  wrong  one,  which  tends  constantly  downward ;  but  that  every 
part  of  the  mind  is  in  what  may  be  called  a  disheveled  state.  It  will 
be  found  upon  examination  that  every  part  of  the  mind  is  working 
in  a  low  mood,  upon  a  low  plane,  and  without  much  advantage  ex- 
cept from  what  is  inherent  in  all  minds.  There  is  very  little  moral 
force  such  as  comes  from  habit ;  and  there  is  still  less  moral  force 
which  comes  from  the  high  automatic  poAver  of  the  mind. 

I  have  said  that  even  the  highest  forms  of  development  are  ex- 
ceedingly imperfect — and  it  is  true  ;  but  it  is  inherent  in  every  fac- 
ulty, by  habit  to  develop  force  which  it  had  not  before.  And  in  that 
direction  lies  intuition.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man, 
by  sedulous  eifort,  and  by  carrying  culture  in  certain  lines,  and  by 
certain  methods,  up  to  a  given  point,  to  come  to  that  which  in  us 
corresponds  to  Avhat  is  omniscience  in  God  ;  but  I  do  say  that  we 
can,  by  partial  experience  in  ourselves,  frame  some  conception  of  the 
direction  in  which  omniscience  lies.  Men  at  first  measure  by  the  eye. 
From  the  power  of  seeing  they  pass  to  the  lowest  reason — the  per- 
ceptive faculty.  And  out  of  that  gradually  comes  the  reflective 
reason.  Facts  first,  and  then  the  relations  of  facts.  But  the  rela- 
tions cannot  be  seen.  They  are  abstract.  Thus  they  develop  a 
higher  reason.  And  higher  than  this  comes  that  kind  of  reasoning 
which  consists  in  framing  larger  complex  ideas  out  of  the  memory 
of  what  you  have  seen  and  what  you  have  thought  about.  And 
Avhen  you  have  attained  to  this,  you  begin  to  be  a  reasoner  and 
philosopher. 

But  there  is  a  state  higher  than  that,  by  which  men  who  have 
trained  themselves  to  it  are  able  to  see  without  looking.  There  is 
a  power  by  which  the  mind  seems  to  flash  light  out  of  itself  into  the 
obscure  and  void  ;  by  which,  without  the  process  of  observation, 
men's  minds  jump  to  the  truths  far  beyond  them. 

How  many  times,  and  in  how  many  ways,  do  men  show  this  ! 
Ko  man  knows  anything  well,  till  he  knows  it  without  being  con- 
scious that  he  knows  it.  Everything  has  to  be  learned  first  by  pain- 
ful volition — by  a  consciousness  of  trying  and  getting.  But  when 
you  have  thoroughly  learned  it,  you  have  learned  it  so  that  when 
you  do  a  thing  you  do  not  know  that  you  do  it. 

When  you  take  a  slep,  do  you  stop  and  go  into  a  calculation 


204  GOD'S  WOBKMANSHIP  m  MiN. 

about  it?  Do  you  say  to  the  muscles,  "Now  lift;  pull"?  But  let 
a  mau  be  sick  three  or  four  months,  so  that  he  is  unable  to  leave  his 
couch;  and  when  the  joyful  morning  comes  that  the  doctor  says  to 
him,  "  It  will  do  you  good  to  get  up  and  walk  to  yonder  chair,"  see 
that  old  baby  get  up  !  He  never  before  thought  about  how  he  should 
set  his  foot  down ;  but  now,  see  how  he  puts  it  out  of  the  bed  ;  and 
how  he  sets  it  down  here,  because  there  the  floor  is  level ;  and  how 
he  avoids  that  crack ;  and  how,  because  that  board  is  a  little  raised, 
he  carefully  puts  his  foot  over  it,  in  order  that  he  may  not  totter  ! 
Every  single  step  he  takes,  he  thinks  of  and  measures  just  as  an 
engineer  that  was  laying  out  a  railroad  would  measure  and  think. 
He  is  so  weak  that  he  is  obliged  to  learn  to  walk  over  again.  He 
has  to  learn  once  more  that  which  he  learned  as  a  child,  and  which 
he  has  forgotten  all  about.  But  after  a  month's  practice,  he  will 
resume  his  old  way,  and  go  out  of  doors,  and  into  the  fields  again. 
And  soon  he  will  chase  the  flying  ball,  and  wrestle,  and  perform  all 
those  old  joyful  feats  of  the  athlete  to  which  he  has  been  accustomed. 
And  then,  will  he  think  of  the  stubble,  or  of  this  stone,  or  of  that 
depression  ?  No ;  his  eye  will  sweep  across  the  field ;  he  will  go 
over  brake  and  through  morass,  sweeping  with  his  eye  from  point  to 
point,  and  he  will  act  without  thinking.  His  hand  will  see  for  him, 
and  his  foot  will  see  for  him,  A  man's  whole  body,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, is  a  piece  of  brain,  apparently. 

And  as  it  is  with  one  part,  so  is  it  with  every  other  part.  Do 
you  suppose  that  a  musician  says  to  his  fingers,  "Now  touch  A," 
or,  "  Now  touch  B  "  ?  Is  there  anything  of  that  kind  in  the  playing 
of  musical  instruments  ?  Does  not  the  finger  itself  find  the  keys  ? 
Does  the  flute-player  think  when  and  how  the  fingers  shall  move  ? 
It  is  the  notes  that  blow  up  the  fingers,  evidently  !  He  does  not 
think  about  them.  Do  you  suppose  the  type-setter  spells  out  the 
words  that  he  sets  up  ?  Why,  a  man  will  set  up  a  whole  column  of 
news,  and  when  it  is  struck  ofl",  and  he  sits  down  and  reads  it,  it  will 
be  as  new  to  him  as  to  anybody  else.  He  does  not  know  one  single 
word  of  it ;  and  yet  he  has  picked  up  the  ten  thousand  types,  and 
put  them  together  to  make  the  sentences  and  the  paragraphs,  with 
scarcely  a  mistake.  All  these  processes  are  the  lower  forms  of  what 
I  mean  by  intuition.  The  body  has  the  power  of  training  almost 
every  muscle  and  part  to  do  things  without  thinking. 

And  so  it  is  with  the  mind.  Men  cease  to  calculate  any  more  in 
small  numbers.  They  see  what  two  and  two  make.  They  are 
not  obliged  to  add  and  subtract,  unless  they  are  unfamiliar  with  fig- 
ures.    For  me,  it  would  be  a  good  half-day's  work  to  run  up  a  page 


GOB'S  WOBKMANSHIP  IN  MAN.  205 

of  figures,  and  result  them ;  but  my  friend  Charles  Marvin  would 
run  up  those  columns,  three  or  four  figures  broad,  all  at  once,  in  almost 
no  time,  and  set  down  the  amount,  and  every  figure  would  be  right 
Now,  where  does  this  power  come  from  ?  It  is  that  inward  pos- 
sibility of  going  by  intuition  which  does  not  stop  to  think  of  proc- 
esses, but  flashes  out  the  result,  and  afterwards  goes  groping  back 
to  see  how  it  came  to  be  flashed  out. 

So  far  as  these  great  powers  Avhich  lie  in  the  human  mind  are 
concerned,  it  is  our  business  to  develop  them.  Is  it  not  the  business 
of  a  grape-vine  to  bring  out,  every  year,  all  the  grapes  that  are  in 
it?  And  is  not  that  a  poor  vine  Avhich  will  not  bear  what  is  in  it  ? 
And  is  there  anything  more  reasonable  than  that  we  should  find  out 
ourselves  by  unwinding  that  which  is  wound  up  in  us  ?  A  great 
many  persons  are  developed  here  and  there  ;  now  and  then  a  faculty 
in  them  is  trained ;  but  is  it  so  of  every  part  of  their  reason,  and  of 
their  moral  sentiments  ?  Even  in  the  best  men,  are  the  highest  and 
supremest  elements  of  the  mind,  the  supernal  tendencies  of  the  soul, 
all  those  ecstatic  feelings  which  go  to  constitute  the  interior  life  of 
Christians — are  these  so  trained  that  they  flash  light  spontaneously 
on  every  side  ?     Is  that  the  condition  in  which  men  are  ? 

Our  own  workmanship  on  ourselves  is  very  poor  workmanship. 
If  we  are  to  be  saved,  it  is  because  there  has  been  Another  working 
on  us  and  in  us,  who  has  done  better  by  us  than  we  have  ever  done 
by  ourselves. 

That  last  remark  leads  me  to  say  that  there  is  an  esthetic  element  in 
the  development  of  moral  character  which  is  to  the  ethical  just  what 
art  is  to  mere  physical  development.  I  mean  that  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  higher  forms  of  human  character  there  is  the  beauty  of 
fineness,  of  harmony,  of  symmetry,  of  proportion,  of  that  which  we 
call,  in  manufacturing, ^ViesA.  You  Avill  find  in  the  writings  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  particularly,  constant  allusions,  not  simply  to  moral 
qualities,  but  to  moral  qualities  in  their  highest  forms  of  beauty. 

"  Whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report." 

Give  without  grudging.  It  is  not  enough  that  you  simply  give. 
You  must  do  it  beautifully.  Your  generosity  must  not  be  clownish. 
It  must  be  fine.  It  must  be  noble.  We  are  to  be  easy  to  be  entreat- 
ed. And  if  you  are  going  to  be  lenient,  if  your  obstinacy  is  to  be 
persuaded,  it  is  not  to  be  done  in  an  awkward  or  ugly  manner.  We 
are  not  to  spit  out  our  acquiescence.  We  are  to  learn  so  to  be  obe- 
dient to  the  highest  nature  that  is  within  us,  and  so  to  train  it,  that 
when  it  develops  itself  into  action,  it  shall  be  finished  action. 

When  the  cutler  brings  his  goods  to  market,  he  may  have  the 


206  GOD'S  WOBKMANSEIF  IN  MAN. 

best  of  steel  in  the  blade,  and  the  best  of  horn  in  the  handle,  and 
every  part  may  be  riveted  strongly ;  but  if  the  blade  has  not  been 
polished  ;  and  if  there  be  no  finishing  work  on  the  handle,  he  can- 
not sell  his  stock.  It  is  just  as  good  for  practical  purposes  as 
though  it  were  finished ;  but  people  do  not  want  it.  They  want 
their  blades  polished,  and  their  handles  finished ;  and  they  are 
so  used  to  having  goods  sand-papered  and  burnished,  that  they  will 
not  take  them  unless  they  are  so.  There  must  be  art  in  them.  And 
this  is  carried  so  far  that  when  articles  are  good  for  nothing,  art  is 
put  on  the  outside  to  make  them  seem  good  for  something.  And 
men  buy  things  for  the  sake  of  their  looks. 

The  idea  of  perfection  lies  in  the  direction  of  the  aesthetic — and 
as  much  so  in  social  and  moral  elements  as  in  physical  things.  Men 
are  not  now  in  any  respect  finished  in  their  higher  relations — I  mean 
even  good  men.  There  are  hundreds  of  men  that  are  in  the 
main  laying  out  their  life  and  character  in  right  directions  and  on 
right  foundations ;  but  how  few  men  know  how  to  be  good  va- 
riously, systematically,  gracefully,  genially,  sweetly,  beautifully. 

What  is  the  average  impression  of  the  community  in  regard  to 
religion — that  it  is  beautiful,  or  that  it  is  gawky  ?  What  do  chil- 
dren think  about  ministers,  and  deacons,  and  class-leaders,  and  church- 
members  ?  I  am  speaking  of  the  best  men  in  churches.  What  is 
the  average  impression  with  regard  to  them  in  communities  ?  Are 
the  substantial  traits  of  religion  so  unfolded  that  they  are  like 
flowers  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  full  of  fragrance  and  beauty  ? 
On  the  contrary,  do  not  men  think  of  religion  as  something  stifij 
something  hard,  something  that  consists  mostly  in  reserves,  with- 
holding people  from  tilings  which  they  want  to  do  ?  Is  it  not  re- 
garded largely  as  a  gaunt  and  barren  cross — or,  for  the  most  part, 
a  cross  without  the  revered  associations  of  Him  who  hung  upon  it  ? 
The  more  closely  you  look  into  the  way  in  which  the  human  mind 
develops,  the  more  I  think  you  will  be  dissatisfied  with  it  when  you 
come  to  compare  it  with  any  high  ideal  of  development  or  accom- 
plishment. The  universal  life  in  the  faculties  is  low.  The  harmon- 
ization of  the  faculties  to  singleness  of  dii-ection  and  unity  of  action 
and  discipline  is  extremely  imperfect,  if  not  unknown.  The  develop- 
ment of  habits  into  automatic  action  is  of  very  limited  extent.  The 
fineness,  the  beauty,  the  finish,  the  loveliness  of  everything  in  the 
character  of  man,  is  far  from  any  ideal  standard.  And  the  conse- 
quence is,  that  there  is  seldom  an  act  which  can  bear  the  measure- 
ment of  any  high  standard  of  human  life. 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  are  not  acts  which  are  right  as  meas- 
ured by  our  lower  standard  of  right  and  wrong ;  but  if  you  con- 


GOB'S  WORKMANSHIP  IN  MAN.'  207 

sider  how  a  man  was  made,  what  he  was  meant  to  he,  and  what  he 
has  in  him  the  capacity  of  becoming,  there  is  scarcely  one  single 
action  that  he  puts  forth  which  is  worthy  of  a  large  manhood. 
There  is  very  little  beauty  in  him.  Character  is  very  low,  even  in 
the  highest.  Men  are  developed  very  strongly  and  very  largely  on 
certain  sides  of  their  nature ;  but  looking  at  them  completely,  meas- 
uring them  by  the  full  conception  of  God  in  their  creation — by  any 
ideal  of  their  possibilities — how  very  ragged  and  how  very  feeble 
is  their  character !  The  great  elements  of  soul-building  are  in  a  con- 
dition of  the  utmost  disorder  and  insufficiency.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  soul  itself  which  should  tempt  one  to  preserve  it.  There  is 
nothing  in  that  which  we  have  sown  and  wrought  out  in  the  field  of 
experience  that  would  naturally  tempt  a  perfect  being  to  harvest  it. 
There  is  scarcely  anything  in  the  regular  rounds  of  human  ex- 
perience that  one  would  desire  to  perpetuate.  If  you  look  at  men  as 
60  many  workers  in  the  great  shop-world,  there  are  found  few  things 
that  they  have  fashioned  which  the  great  artist  God  could  look 
down  upon  with  any  considerable  satisfaction.  The  things  which 
we  take  the  most  pains  in  doing,  when  you  measure  them  by  that 
higher  standard,  the  law  of  God,  are  so  insignificant,  are  so  imper- 
fect, are  so  full  of  flaws,  that  you  can  hardly  conceive  that  one  would 
wish  to  preserve  them. 

If  this  be  a  just  view  of  man's  condition  (I  have  purposely 
avoided  theological  technics,  and  attempted  to  develop  my  idea  re- 
specting the  condition  of  man's  nature  from  the  more  familiar  side 
of  modern  thought)  then,  I  think  it  fairly  right  to  infer  that  at 
death  one  of  two  things  must  needs  take  place.  When  we  come 
to  look  at  the  actual  condition  even  of  the  best  persons,  in  all 
the  respects  which  I  have  mentioned,  it  seems  impossible  that  a 
moral  change  of  relative  position  should  endue  one  with  perfect- 
ness  and  with  morality.  If,  therefore,  persons  pass  out  of  this  life 
with  such  a  low  average  of  development,  with  so  little  that  is  drilled 
to  high  moral  excellence,  they  pass  out,  and  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  the  other  side  still  in  the  condition  of  scholars,  we  will 
suppose,  as  the  children  of  a  primary  school  go  into  an  academy, 
where  there  are  higher  teachers,  and  higher  branches,  and  where 
they  themselves  are  better  prepared  to  go  on  in  their  develoi3ment, 
than  when  they  were  struggling  with  the  prime  elements  or  the 
lower  stages  of  thought.  It  does  not  seem  to  me,  as  I  look  at  men 
in  tlie  Avhole  round  of  their  condition  and  stage  of  development,  that 
on  dying  they  can  be  expected  to  enter  upon  a  perfected  state.  There 
is  in  them  so  much  that  is  not  developed  at  all,  so  much  that  is  deaf 
and  dumb,  so  much  that  is  comparatively  paralyzed,  so  much  that 


208  GOD'S  WORKMANSHIP  IN  MAN. 

is  shrunk ;  there  is  in  them  so  low  an  average  of  development  on 
every  side,  that  it  seems  to  me  impossible  that  anything  short  of  a 
miraculous  touch  of  re-creation  can  bring  them,  in  a  moment,  though 
they  are  set  free  from  the  body,  to  the  attitude  of  perfect  beings. 

We  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  in  more  senses  than  one,  as 
little  children.  I  take  it  that  we  leave  this  world  to  go  on  with 
our  stages  of  discipline — not  the  same  which  we  have  here,  but 
what  will,  in  our  changed  conditions  and  circumstances,  be  equiva- 
lent to  what  discipline  is  in  our  earthly  relations.  But  it  does  not 
seem  to  me  rational  that  we  shall  be  trudging,  trudging,  trudging, 
clear  up  to  the  moment  of  death,  and  that  then  we  shall  start  up 
absolutely  different.  There  will  be  another  climate,  another  soil, 
and  a  nobler  growth  ;  but  there  will  be  growth.  That  which  you 
have  not  learned  here,  you  must  learn  there.  That  which  you  have 
left  undone  in  this  world,  you  must  do  in  the  world  to  come. 

In  Labrador,  the  missionary,  at  the  beginning  of  a  short  sum- 
mer, sows  the  seed  of  the  vine.  It  comes  up,  and  gets  a  little  start, 
and  is  taken  out  of  the  soil  and  husbanded  during  the  winter,  to  be 
put  out  again  when  the  next  brief  summer  sets  in.  But  in  the  course 
of  the  ten  years  of  this  missionary's  life  in  that  cold  region,  the  vine 
does  not  get  more  than  three  or  four  feet  high,  and  never  shows 
any  symptom  of  bud,  or  blossom,  or  cluster.  The  soil  is  too  cold, 
and  the  summer  is  too  short.  At  length,  the  missionary  is  recalled 
to  his  native  land,  and  he  takes  this  vine,  the  pet  of  his  leisure,  and 
brings  it  down  into  our  southern  latitudes,  and  plants  it.  It  is  now 
the  same  vine ;  it  has  the  same  root ;  but  it  is  not  the  same  sky  that 
is  over  it.  Look  long,  O  Summer !  Look  warm,  O  Sun !  Search 
and  find  where  the  hidden  things  in  the  vine  are.  Behold,  how  it 
begins  to  shoot  up !  See  what  a  stately  growth  it  is  having  !  Look 
at  the  branch  upon  branch  which  it  is  throwing  out !  Observe  the 
smell  in  the  air !  See  the  blossoms,  and  after  the  blossoms,  the 
clusters  which  the  autumn  shall  see  hanging  impurpled  and  ripened  ! 
But  it  took  another  soil  and  another  sun  to  produce  it.  It  never 
would  have  reached  that  state  in  Labrador. 

I  remark,  secondly,  that  if  this  general  view  of  human  nature  be 
correct — if  man  is  as  undeveloped,  as  irregular,  as  imperfect,  as  in- 
consistent as  the  tenor  of  this  discourse  has  indicated — then  there  is 
no  more  noble  experience  known  among  men  than  that  which  strong 
men  ai'e  accustomed  to  look  upon  with  the  most  suspicion.  The 
fact  that  a  man  is  under  profound  suffering  from  a  sense  of  his  own 
sinfulness — or,  in  common  phraseology,  that  he  is  under  a  powerful 
co?ivlctlon  of  sin — is  regarded  by  multitudes  of  men  as  an  evidence 
of  want  of  strength  of  judgment.      It  is  thought  that  men  who  are 


GOB'S  WOEEMANSHIP  IN  MAN.  209 

thus  affected  are  laboring  under  a  hallucination  of  mind,  and  that 
they  are  subjecting  themselves  to  requirements  which  are  too  severe, 
which  are  not  natural,  and  which  do  not  belong  to  the  truest  con- 
ception of  manhood. 

There  are  a  great  many  mild-mannered  men,  men  of  meekness 
because  men  of  weakness,  who  seem  to  sail  through  life  without  ever 
being  agitated.  Did  you  ever  see  a  brook  only  an  inch  deep  that 
could  have  waves  twenty  feet  high  ?  If  a  man  is  shallow  enough, 
he  will  not  be  deeply  moved.  And  multitudes  of  men  are  serene,  and 
go  through  life  quite  satisfied  with  themselves — and  I  thank  God 
that  there  is  anything  in  the  universe  that  can  be  satisfied  with 
them. 

But  I  speak  of  men  who  have  some  sense  of  the  depth  and  the 
power  which  there  is  in  the  soul.  There  are  men  who  have  some 
sense  of  the  reach  which  there  is  in  eternity.  There  are  some  men 
whose  conception  of  character  and  whose  self-esteem  take  hold  upon 
immortality.  These  men  cannot  afford  to  be  lost,  nor  to  run  any 
peril  of  loss.  And  to  such  men  there  is  nothing  more  wise,  nor 
more  profoundly  philosophical,  than  this  very  sense  of  sinfulness, 
which  so  many  regard  with  contemj^t. 

When  you  take  a  large  conception  of  what  the  possibility  of 
manhood  is,  as  sketched  in  the  word  of  God,  there  is  not  one  part  of 
a  man's  nature  which  is  not  stained.  There  is  not  a  single  faculty  in 
which  he  does  not  sin  every  day.  There  is  not  a  feeling  in  him. 
which  is  not  flawed  and  enfeebled ;  which  is  not  irregular  and  in- 
constant ;  and  which  is  not  used  for  selfishness  more  than  for  benev- 
olence ;  for  lust  more  than  for  purity  ;  for  the  animal  more  than  for 
the  spiritual. 

This  is  not  confined  to  one  part  of  the  mind.  It  extends  all 
through  it.  And  if  a  man  thinks  of  himself  as  lying  under  the  eye 
of  God,  the  Supreme,  I  do  not  marvel  that  his  soul  heaves  with  a 
sense  of  its  own  worthlessness  and  unworthiness  before  God.  There 
is  no  more  manly  experience  in  this  world  than  the  laying  of  the 
hand  upon  the  mouth,  and  the  mouth  in  the  dust,  and  tlie  crying  out, 
"  Unclean  !  unclean  !  God  be  merciful !" 

I  remark,  thirdly,  that  the  church,  and  all  its  members,  stand 
before  God  just  as  every  other  man  stands  before  him,  in  so  far  as 
absolute  character  is  concerned.  When  men  have  been  converted, 
they  are  simply  begun  upon  by  a  higher  power.  They  are  not  per- 
fected. And  no  man  is  saved  because  he  has  been  baptized.  No 
man  is  saved  because  he  is  a  member  of  the  church.  The  fact  that 
a  man  is  a  member  of  the  church  is  no  evidence  that  he  is  good  in 
any  important  and  proper  sense  of  that  term.     A  man  is  not  less  a 


210  GOB'S  wo BKMAIi SHIP  IN  MAN. 

sinner  in  the  church  than  he  is  out  of  it,  in  this  more  generic  use  of 
the  word  sinfulness.  Every  man  that  is  in  the  church  is  dependent 
simply  on  the  generosity  of  God.  If  you  are  saved,  and  if  I  am 
saved,  it  will  be  because,  having  been  brought  into  the  church,  we 
made  such  good  use  of  our  time  that,  with  the  help  of  God,  we  re- 
paired the  damage  ol  sin,  so  that  every  side  of  our  character  was 
being  built  up,  and  gave  promise  of  being  a  fit  temple  for  the  New 
Jerusalem,  whose  walls  are  built  of  precious  stones,  and  whose  gates 
are  of  pearl.  By  nature,  we  are  full  of  pride  and  selfishness ;  we 
are  of  the  earth,  earthy.  All  through  us  is  imperfection,  and  stain, 
and  rottenness ;  we  ai-e  altogether  sinful ;  and  the  best  that  can  be 
said  of  us  is  that  we  are  attempting  what  others  are  not  attempt- 
ing ;  that  we  have  a  noble  purpose,  and  that  we  are  striving  up- 
ward to  the  absolute  condition  of  perfect  men.  Every  man  before 
God  is  a  creature  of  such  sinfulness  that  he  is  obliged  to  say  of  him- 
self, "  By  the  grace  of  God  :  not  by  my  own  virtue  and  goodness, 
but  by  God's  generosity,  dying  for  me,  and  bearing  my  burden,  I 
shall  be  saved,  if  I  am  saved  at  all.  It  will  be,  not  anything  that  is 
beautiful  or  good  in  me — oh,  no  !  but  the  unsj^eakable  pity,  the 
profound  sorrow,  the  mercy  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Therefore  the  reality  of  sin,  the  existence  of  deadly  evil,  should 
be  no  reason  why  one  should  not  repair  to  God  for  sympathy  and 
for  succor.  There  are  many  who,  being  conscious  of  wickedness, 
and,  not  being  Christians,  do  not  see  why  they  should  ask  divine 
succor.  There  are  many  who  are  conscious  of  being  bound  by  evil; 
and  they  fain  would  break  away  from  it.  If  only  they  were  Chris- 
tians, and  in  the  church,  God  would  help  them ;  but  they  are  sinners, 
and  out  of  the  church,  and  they  dare  not  go  to  God.  Many  a  man 
would  fain  break  away  from  the  cup,  but  he  knows  that  his  own 
strength  is  insufficient ;  and  as  he  is  not  a  Christian,  as  he  has  made 
his  investments  in  evil,  he  does  not  feel  that  he  has  a  right  to  draw 
upon  the  bank  of  divine  mercy.  He  keeps  no  account  there,  and  he 
has  no  reason  to  think  that  his  check  will  be  honored  there  if  he 
presents  it. 

Now,  there  is  not  a  human  being  in  or  out  of  the  Church  who  is 
not  an  object  of  divine  compassion  and  divine  love.  God  may  have 
the  love  of  complacency  when  his  Spirit  shall  have  drawn  you  more 
and  more  into  the  lines  and  lineaments  of  his  own  blessed  beauty  ; 
but  God  is  Love,  and  he  will  not  wait  for  your  turning  before  he 
loves  you.  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  son  to  die  for 
it,  and  to  die  for  it  while  yet  it  was  in  sin — yea,  and  at  enmity  to  him. 
God's  love  precedes  all  reformation.  And  there  is  no  man — not  a 
drunkard,  not  a  gambler,  not  a  thief,  not  a  person  that  is  filled  full 


GOB'S  WORKMAN 8EIP  m  MAN.  211 

of  passions  and  appetites — who  has  not  a  right,  to-day,  now,  here- 
in liis  heart,  to  look  up  and  say,  "  God  help  me  !"  Your  sinfulness 
is  not  a  reason  why  you  should  keep  away  from  God.  It  is  the  very 
reason  why  you  should  go  to  him.  He  is  to  your  soul  what  the 
physician  is  to  your  body.  When  your  body  is  racked  with  pains, 
or  is  swollen  with  disease,  you  go  to  the  physician,  that  he  may 
heal  you.  And  so,  the  consciousness  of  your  sin,  and  of  the  hateful- 
ness  of  it,  is  the  very  reason  why  you  should  go  to  God. 

But  may  a  sinner  pray  ?  Who  may  pray,  if  not  a  sinner  ?  If  a 
sinner  may  not  pray,  then  who  on  earth  may  ? — for  there  is  not 
a  man  on  earth  that  is  not  a  sinner.  Every  human  soul  is  so 
far  from  the  goal  of  perfection  that  if  sinners  could  not  pray  there 
would  be  no  utterance  of  prayer.  Yes,  each  sinning  soul  may  pray 
when  it  has  a  consciousness  of  its  wickedness  and  uncleanness.  That 
is  the  time  that  God  invites  you  to  call  upon  him.  Will  God  hear 
the  prayers  of  wicked  men  ?  Yes,  he  will.  He  has  heard  them 
since  the  world  began.  No  man  ever  desired  to  be  better  that  that 
desire  was  not  the  witness  that  God  was  present,  influencing  and 
persuading  him. 

Do  not  wait,  then,  till  you  are  members  of  the  Church,  and  do 
not  wait  till  you  are  changed,  before  you  begin  to  pray.  Oh  selfish 
man,  who  does  not  want  to  be  selfish  !  that  aspiration  for  something 
better  is  of  God.  Oh  proud  man,  who  sees  a  better  way  !  that  see- 
ing is  the  light  of  God.  Oh  worldly  man,  who  is  conscious  of  spiritual 
things  !  that  consciousness  is  of  God.  These  are  things  that  the 
Father  sends  to  you  as  imperfect  children.  Poor  you  are,  sinful  you 
are,  low  and  wretched  and  wicked  you  are ;  but  there  is  might  in 
God.  Call  upon  him,  venture  upon  him,  and  he  will  transform  you 
into  his  own  glorious  image,  and  make  you  meet  for  the  inheritance 
of  eternal  life. 

There  is  nothing  that  makes  discords  in  churches,  and  discords 
between  separate  churches,  so  hateful  as  the  consciousness  of  the  im- 
perfection of  all  churches  and  all  church-members.  To  see  a  general 
breaking  out  among  well,  strong  men,  is  bad  enough ;  but  to  see  men 
who  are  gathered  together  in  a  plague-hospital  fall  out  with  each 
other,  and  to  sec  bed  rail  at  bed,  and  fevers  send  gibes  over  to 
fevers,  and  dropsies  swell  with  tumid  importance  and  great  superi- 
ority over  emaciations,  and  emaciations  point  and  chatter  at  the 
hideousness  of  dropsies — that  is  worse  still.  What  would  you  think 
of  a  conflict  where  cripples  were  fighting  cripples  ?  What  would 
you  think  if  you  saw  dying  men  using  their  waning  breath  to  rail 
at  dying  men  ? 

But  are  not  all  cliurches  hospitals  ?    As  God  looks  upon  his  chil- 


212  GOB'S  WOBKMANSHIF  IN  MAN. 

dren  of  different  names,  does  he  not  see  tliat  tliey  all  are  dependent 
upon  his  generosity  and  grace  ?  What  man,  measured  by  the 
divine  standard,  is  good  enough  to  set  himself  above  his  neighbor  ? 
What  man  has  not,  as  God  sees  him,  so  much  of  the  canker  and  rust 
of  pride  as  to  take  away  from  him  the  right  of  arrogance  ?  To  that 
very  point  Christ  spoke  the  parable,  where  he  that  had  been  for- 
given went  out  and  laid  his  hand  upon  his  fellow  servant's  throat, 
and  said,  "  Pay  me  what  thou  owest  me  !"  and  would  not  be  lenient. 
God  teaches  us  that  we  are  debtors  to  him,  living  on  amnesty  and 
forgiveness.  We  are  fed  by  divine  mercy.  And  surely,  God's 
goodness  to  us  ought  to  teach  us  to  be  forbearing  and  lenient  toward 
others.  No  man  is  so  good  that  he  can  afford  to  become  a  censor. 
Certainly,  no  man  can  afford  to  speak  censoriously  of  the  faults  of 
others  who  are  in  churches  around  about  him.  For  the  one  great 
household  on  earth,  the  one  great  family  of  man,  the  race,  live  in 
the  very  first  stages  of  development ;  and  imperfection  and  rude- 
ness and  ungi'owth  characterize  them  all  ;  and  at  every  step  of  un- 
folding we  see  some  irregularity,  some  perversion,  some  sinfulness  ; 
and  all  through,  from  top  to  bottom,  the  whole  earth  groans  and 
travails  in  pain  by  reason  of  unfulfilled  concej^tions  and  aspirations, 
of  mistakes,  and  of  sins.  It  is  only  the  grace  and  mercy  of  God  that 
keeps  the  whole  woi*ld  from  dismal  collapse,  that  raises  it  higher  and 
higher  in  the  moral  scale  from  generation  to  generation,  and  that 
shall  yet  bring  out  of  it,  not  our  workmanship,  but  God's — his  work- 
manship in  the  human  soul  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON.* 

O  Lord  our  Saviour,  we  remember  thine  earthly  love.  We  remember 
the  tenderness  of  thine  heart  for  little  children.  We  remark  how  they  ran 
toward  thee,  such  was  thy  winning  way.  Nor  wouldst  thou  permit  any  to 
separate  them  from  thee.  Thy  heart  was  warm  toward  them.  Thou  didst 
put  thine  arms  about  them,  and  thine  hands  upon  them  ;  and  thou  didst 
bless  them.  And  it  would  seem,  ever  since,  that  children  have  taught  us 
our  best  lessons  of  thee.  We  still  hear  thee  saying,  Except  ye  be  converted 
and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Lord,  how  far  have  we  wandered  from  our  early  purity,  and  simplicity,  and 
trustfulness,  and  clinging  love!  How  much  do  we  need  to  be  brought 
back  again,  and  to  become  lowly,  gentle  and  pure  of  heart— unsullied  and 
unstained. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  these  dear  parents ; 
and  while  they  are,  with  all  fidelity,  instructing  these  children,  may  they 
also  learn  from  them  lessons  which  shall  be  of  comfort  and  of  great  profit 
to  them,  all  their  lives  long.  Every  day,  as  they  bear  aud  forbear,  for  love's 
sake,  may  they  understand  thy  patience  and  forbearance  toward  them. 
Every  day,  as  they  deny  themselves,  and  find  greater  delight  in  doing  for 
•  Immediately  f  oUowing  the  baptism  of  cLildren. 


GOD'S  W0BEMAN8HIP  IN  MAN.  213 

others  than  in  doing  for  themselves,  may  they  understand  the  royalty  of 
thy  nature  and  of  thy  government.  Every  day,  as  they  see  what  labor  love 
■will  endure,  how  long  it  will  suffer,  how  unwearied  it  will  be,  through  good 
report  and  through  evil  report,  and  how  fruitful  it  will  be  unto  the  end, 
may  they  understand  the  everlasting  glory  and  summer  of  thy  love  to  them. 
O  Lord !  how  slowly  have  we  learned,  in  whose  houses  so  many  teachers 
have  been  sent!  How  many  times  have  the  gates  been  opened,  and  thou 
sent  through  thy  little  ones  to  be  our  instructors  I  How  slow  are  we  to 
believe !  How  dull  to  understand  \  But  at  last,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  we 
may  be  caught  up  into  that  most  blessed  of  all  knowledge,  the  knowledge 
of  thy  pity,  thy  tenderness,  and  thy  love,  which  forgives,  and  heals,  and 
lifts,  with  wondrous  strength,  those  that  are  fallen  down,  and  puts  them 
again  upon  their  feet,  and  establishes  their  going. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God !  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  every 
one  of  us  more  and  more  trust  in  thee.  As  we  have  less  and  less  occasion 
to  trust  ourselves,  may  we  see  that  our  help  is  of  thee;  that  all  our  love 
comes  from  thee;  that  we  stand  in  thy  thought;  and  that  it  is  because 
thou  dost  not  forget  us  that  we  live  in  this  royal  way.  May  we  remember 
to  be  to  others,  according  to  the  measure  of  our  strength,  as  thou  art  to  us. 
And  may  we  seek  to  know  more  of  thee  by  seeking  to  fulfill  to  those  around 
about  us  the  same  glorious  offices  of  gentleness,  and  patience,  and  forgive- 
ness, and  sympathy,  and  helpfulness  which  thou  art  evermore  practicing 
toward  us. 

We  ask  that  the  lives  and  the  health  of  these  dear  children  may  be  pre- 
cious in  thy  sight.  And  as  thy  servants  have  come  into  thy  presence,  this 
morning,  bearing  the  tokens  of  thy  thought  and  love  and  blessing,  foibid 
that  they  should  be  satisfied  with  external  rites ;  but  prepare  them  to  keep  or 
to  give  to  thee  the  gifts  which  now  make  their  hearts  so  glad.  And  if  these 
dear  children  shall  grow  up  in  this  world,  may  it  be  in  truth,  in  purity,  in 
virtue  and  in  piety.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  a  blessing  may 
go  with  them  out  of  the  sanctuary.  May  the  spirit  of  the  house  of  God  be 
borne  .with  them  into  their  own  homes,  to  lighten  them,  and  to  sanctify 
them,  and  to  enrich  them.  We  pray  for  all  the  children  that  are  in  the 
church,  and  all  the  children  that  are  in  this  society.  May  they  not  be  for- 
gotten in  the  hour  of  prayer,  or  in  the  secret  places  of  consciousness  and 
experiense.  And  we  pray  that  they  may  be  brought  up  with  all  faithful- 
ness, and  that  they  may  grow,  fruitful  in  all  goodness. 

Thou  hast  blessed  the  prayers  of  thy  servants.  How  many  there  are  that 
come  this  morning  remembering  the  goodness  of  God  to  them  in  their  child- 
ren !  How  many  there  are  that  can  look  over  their  flock  and  see  not  one 
gonel  How  many  there  are  who  have  not  yet  had  the  fountain  of  grief 
opened  in  the  loss  of  children!  How  many  have  seen  their  children  grow 
up  to  man's  estate  and  walk  in  the  way  of  safety,  and  of  truth,  and  of  honor! 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God !  if  there  be  any  in  thy  presence 
who  mourn  over  their  children,  and  who  think  thou  hast  hidden  thyself, 
and  forgotten  to  be  gracious,  that  thou  wilt  comfort  and  strengthen  them, 
and  let  them  not  doubt  thy  faithfulness.  And  may  they  wait.  Though 
seed  long  sown  seems  dead,  yet  by  and  by,  even  after  the  winter,  it  shall 
come  forth,  and  not  perish  utterly  May  they  have  confidence  in  God,  and 
persevere  unto  the  end. 

And,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  the  young  that  are  gath- 
ered from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  in  our  midst.  Remember  our  Sabbath-schools 
and  our  Bible  classes— all  the  teachers,  and  all  that  are  taught.  We  thank 
thee  that  there  are  so  many  who  have  it  in  their  heart  to  give  their  time  and 
their  strength  in  this  labor  of  love.  And  while  they  are  blessing  others, 
may  they  be  themselves  more  blest. 


214  GOB'S  WOBKMANSHIP  IN  MAN. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  spread  abroad  intelligence  among  theagnorant; 
and  may  there  be  many  hearts  tenderly  alive  to  the  goodness  of  Christ  to 
them,  that  shall  go  forth  to  bear  tidings  of  this  precious  salvation,  on  every 
hand.  Let  no  place  be  unvisited.  On  every  household  may  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness arise  and  shine.  And  may  this  great  city  be  won  to  morality  and 
piety.  And,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  all  causes  of  evil  may  be  overruled 
and  destroyed ;  and  that  all  influences  for  good  may  thrive'  and  grow 
strong.  May  love  prevail  against  selfishness,  and  truth  against  falseness; 
and  may  all  things  in  the  community  tend  more  and  more  to  the  honor 
of  God  and  the  welfare  of  man. 

We  pray,  O  Lord!  that  thou  wilt  bless  thy  churches  of  every  name 
throughout  the  land.  We  thank  thee  for  so  many  tokens  of  kindness  among 
them.  We  thank  thee  for  the  growing  confidence  which  they  exhibit.  We 
thank  thee  that  thou  art  overcoming  all  divisive  influences,  and  that  thou 
art  inspiring  men  with  a  spirit  of  unity.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  still 
unite  thy  people  by  heart;  by  sympathy;  by  common  faith  in  thee;  by  a 
personal  experience  of  thy  mercy ;  by  their  labors  for  others.  May  they  be 
united  in  self-denial,  in  pain-bearing,  and  in  cross-bearing.  And  we  pray 
that  thou  wilt  thus  give  to  us  the  confidence  and  conviction  and  zeal  and 
faith  of  thy  people  in  all  the  world. 

And  grant  that  thy  Church  may  hold  together  nations,  so  that  they  shall 
not  be  rent  asunder  by  intestine  wars.  Grant  that  nations  may  be  so  sancti- 
fied by  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  their  citizens,  that  nation  shall  not  go  out  against 
nation  any  more  to  war.  Oh,  for  that  day  of  enlightenment  when  men  shall 
live  by  reason,  and  by  kindness ;  when  forbearance  shall  be  a  virtue ;  when 
men  shall  not  think  it  an  honor  to  strike  quick,  and  to  strike  often.  Grant, 
we  pray  thee,  that  men  may  suifer  rather  than  inflict  suffering..  May  they 
be  like  thee,  and  bear  each  other's  burdens.  We  pray  that  the  long  delayed 
predictions  which  respect  this  world,  may  begin  to  be  fulfilled.  Let  not  our 
faith  utterly  fail.  Let  us  not  doubt  that  bright  time  that  is  coming,  when 
men  shall  be  perfected  on  earth.  Let  thy  kingdom,  in  which  dwelleth  right- 
eousness come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  fill  the  earth,  as  the  waters  fill  the 
sea. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises,  evermore, 
Aracn. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  take  away  from 
us  all  pride  and  conceit.  Give  us  to  see,  as  thou  dost  see  it,  how  barren  our 
nature  is— or  that  it  is  fruitful  only  in  things  evil.  How  imperfect  are  the 
best  things  1  and  how  wicked  are  they  who  have  the  most  goodness !  How 
little  have  we  learned !  How  little  facility  have  we  in  the  management  of 
the  great  estate  committed  to  our  charge!  How  crude  and  imperfect  yet 
are  all  the  fruits  that  are  in  us.  Lord,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  dost  not 
choose  us  for  our  beauty,  nor  for  our  goodness.  We  thank  thee  that  thou 
takest  us  from  reasons  that  are  in  thyself.  Oh,  the  depth  of  thy  heart  of 
love !  Oh,  the  wonder  of  thy  patience  I  Thou  nourishing  Father,  thou  ever- 
living  and  everlasting  Saviour,  it  is  out  of  thee  that  our  life  must  come  for- 
evermore.  And  when  ages  have  gone  by,  and  we  have  had  long  experience 
of  the  ripening  air  of  heaven,  then,  more  than  now,  we  shall  ascribe  all  the 
praise,  and  all  the  glory  of  our  salvation,  to  the  Father,  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Spirit.    Amen. 


XI. 

The  Name  of  Jesus, 


Look  upon  us,  thou  that  dost  behold  with  love  and  light  in  thine  eye, 
and  bring  us  forth  into  life,  and  lift  us  into  that  serene  sphere  of  love  where 
thou  dwell  est,  and  in  which  we  can  only  behold  thee.  Purge  from  us  the 
dullness  of  our  senses.  Cleanse  us  from  doubt  and  unbelief.  Set  us  free 
from  the  entanglements  of  the  flesh,  and  from  the  memory  of  it.  We  be- 
seech of  thee  that  thou  wilt  fill  us  with  a  blessed  sympathy,  that  we  may 
come  into  communion  with  the  Father  of  Spirits.  May  the  truth  of  thy 
word  be  transfigured,  and  interpreted  to  us  to-day.  May  all  the  services  of 
song  be  as  the  flight  of  our  souls  toward  heaven,  and  may  our  gladness 
mingle  with  the  gladness  of  the  heavenly  land  to-day.  And  we  pray  that 
all  the  instruction  and  fellowship  and  social  joy  this  day  may  be  consecrated 
by  thy  loving  Spirit.  And  may  we  rejoice,  and  find  it  to  be  a  day  of  rest 
indeed.    In  the  name  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  we  ask  it.     Amen. 

n. 


THE  MME  OF  JESUS. 


'  Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name 
which  is  above  every  name :  that,  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  the  earth,  and  things  under  the 
earth ;  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father."— Phil,  ii.,  9-11. 


This  is  a  prophecy,  not  formal  and  official.  It  is  an  outburst  of 
the  expression  of  feeling — one  of  those  royal  insights  which  were  so 
peculiar  to  the  Apostle  Paul.  The  long  track  of  history  passed 
over,  the  whole  race's  development  and  consummation  ended,  he 
saw  things  as  they  would  appear  beyond,  in  the  final  sphere  and 
full  disclosure  above.  And  then  there  should  be  one  Name  that 
was  mightier,  more  magical,  more  marvelous,  more  blessed  than 
every  other  name  in  the  universe.  That  should  be  the  name  of 
Jesus.  Then,  in  the  praise  of  that  Name,  every  joy  and  ecstasy 
would  break  forth  spontaneously  and  irresistibly.  Then,  in  that 
universal  admiration  and  adoration  of  praise  ofiered  to  Christ  would 
be  a  glory  attributed  to  the  Eternal  Father  himself. 

So  much  for  the  substance  of  the  declaration.  Now  let  us  begin 
and  follow  this  thought  up. 

In  its  lowest  use,  a  name  is  a  sign  affixed  to  a  thing  for  the  pur- 
pose of  separating  it  in  our  regard  or  representation  from  every 
other  thing.  After  a  while,  in  the  progress  of  time,  by  use,  a  name 
not  simply  signifies  the  thing  which  it  represents,  but  comes  also  to 
have  in  it,  and  to  convey  to  those  that  hear  it,  a  notion  of  that  which 
inheres  in  the  thing.  It  rises  from  a  mere  physical  appellation,  and 
begins  to  liave  an  interior  sense.  And  then,  naturally,  it  is  applied 
to  qualities  themselves.  Or  rather,  the  name  of  a  tiling,  when  pro- 
nounced, conveys  the  idea,  not  so  much  of  the  thing  itself,  as  of  its 
quality. 

Both  of  these  are  combined  when  names  are  applied  to  persons. 
In  regard  to  persons,  they  are  at  first  the  simple  means  of  identify- 
ing diiferent  ones.  They  separate  one  man  from  another,  and  are 
Bigns  of  separateness  and  individuality.     Thus,  a  list  of  names  in  a 

SuTTDAT  MoRNTNa,  May  21,  1871.    Lesson  :  Phil.  n.  1-13.    Hymns  (Pljmiouth  Col- 

leotion) :  Nos.  208,  293,  551. 


218  TRE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 

directory  conveys  very  little  impression  except  of  so  many  separate 
persons.  It  gives  very  little  notion  of  character.  It  suggests  very 
little  idea  of  association.  A  list  of  letters  in  a  post-office,  if  we  knew 
the  persons,  would,  when  the  names  were  pronounced,  stir  up  in  our 
minds  a  thousand  thoughts  of  their  dispositions,  and  of  their  his- 
tories, and  of  their  relations,  and  of  the  incidents  connected  with 
them ;  but  as  we  read  them  without  that  knowledge,  we  merely 
think  of  numbers  as  applied  to  persons.  So  a  roll  of  names  of  sol- 
diers, a  series  of  names  set  down  in  any  way,  merely  conveys  to  us 
an  idea  of  the  individuality  and  separateness  of  the  person  men- 
tioned from  the  mass. 

Our  own  name  means  more  to  us  than  any  other,  of  course  ;  and 
it  comes  to  mean  more  and  more  in  proportion  as  we  actually  grow, 
whether  within  or  without ;  whether  our  development  is  in  the 
sense  of  relation  to  external  things,  or  whether  it  is  in  manhood,  and 
has  relation  to  invisible  qualities. 

We  are  not  conscious  of  how  full  of  nerves  our  separate  names 
are.  We  are  not  conscious  of  how  much  of  pride,  and  hope,  and 
joy,  and  fear,  and  love,  is  subtly  connected  with  the  sentence  in 
which  our  own  personal  name  is  pronounced. 

If  you  touch  the  name,  you  touch  the  soul  itself,  often,  and  send 
it  forth  in  flight,  sometimes  in  one,  and  sometimes  in  another  direc- 
tion, according  to  circumstances. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  saw  on  exhibition  not  many  years  ago,  in 
New  York,  a  singularly  efiective  though  realistic  picture  of  a  prison 
such  as  might  have  been  seen  in  France  during  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, in  which  all  the  half-lighted,  vaulted  space  was  filled  full  of  per- 
sons— men,  women,  and  children — very  noble  many  of  them — many 
of  them  historic.  On  the  back  side  of  the  picture  the  door  stood 
open ;  and  there  were  the  grim  and  savage  officers ;  and  there  was  a 
French  functionary  or  official  standing  with  a  list  of  names,  and  call- 
ing them  off  They  were  the  names  of  the  prisoners  who  were  to  go 
out  to  be  guillotined  that  morning.  And  as  the  sounds  fell  upon 
the  ears  of  the  hundreds  that  were  huddled  together  there,  what  do 
you  suppose  was  the  eSect  of  the  pronunciation  of  them  ?  What 
were  their  names  to  those  prisoners  then  ?  How  much  did  they  sug- 
gest to  them,  not  only  of  their  own  selves,  but  of  all  their  hopes, 
and  of  all  their  future,  and  of  all  their  relations  to  one  and  another, 
to  life,  and  to  time,  and  to  eternity  itself  ?  And  all  these  feelings 
were  started  because  the  names,  pronounced  in  connection  with  a 
certain  time  and  purpose,  touched  every  single  chord  in  their  souls 
— some  with  horror,  and  some  with  gladness  (for  such  were  men's 
Bufferings  then  that  they  were  glad  to  die). 


THE  NAME  OF  JES  U8.  219 

I  recollect  one  clay  Avhen  I  had  been  traveling  alone  in  the  Alps 
(for  the  sake  of  that  additional  luxury  we  had  j)arted),  that,  after  I 
had  been  for  some  hours  without  company  in  that  strange  land, 
where  I  was  surrounded  by  very  unfamiliar  and  novel  scenes,  and 
where  only  a  foreign  language  was  spoken  about  me,  I  heard,  fall 
down  as  it  were  out  of  the  air,  my  own  name,  spoken  so  cheerily, 
so  buoyantly,  that  I  was  utterly  bewildered.  Of  course  I  did  not 
suppose  that  angels  were  troubling  themselves  with  me  ;  but  I  knew 
that  it  must  have  come  from  somewhere  above  me,  I  was  climbing 
up ;  and,  turning  in  the  road,  very  soon  I  saw  revealed  to  me  the 
welcome  face  and  familiar  form  of  a  friend  from  New  England,  Avhom 
I  did  not  know  Avas  absent  from  home.  He  was  coming  from  the 
other  direction,  and,  looking  down,  he  had  seen  me.  I  never  knew 
what  I  should  feel  like  when  I  was  reduced  to  an  absolute  abstrac- 
tion until  that  hour,  when  my  name  was  pronounced  under  such 
circumstances.  It  produced  in  me  a  bewilderment  and  whirl  of  feel- 
ing. I  knew  not  whether  it  boded  good  or  bad,  joy  or  sorrow. 
Whether  it  came  from  friend  or  foe  I  could  not  tell.  It  caused  a 
total  inward  awakening  or  agitation  such  as  I  had  never  experienced 
before.  A  man's  name  takes  hold  of  a  thousand  inward  chords,  and 
may  be  so  pronounced  that  almost  every  nerve  and  sensibility  of  his 
being  shall  be  thrilled  with  it. 

One  of  the  most  matchless  scenes  in  the  New  Testament  history 
is  connected  with  this,  where  after  he  came  forth  on  that  blessed 
morning,  Jesus  walked  in  the  garden,  and  Maj'y,  the  most  devoted 
of  all  the  women,  could  not  see  him  because  of  her  tears  (for  peo- 
ple's griefs  are  very  apt  to  hide  from  them  the  presence  of  the  Com- 
forter), and  she  said  to  him,  supposing  he  was  the  gardener,  "  Sir, 
if  thou  hast  taken  him  away,  tell  me  where  thou  hast  laid  him,"  and 
he  who  had  spoken  with  her,  and  had  not  been  recognized  by  her, 
simply  pronounced  her  name,  "  Mary  !"  and  with  that  she  cried  out, 
in  an  ecstasy  of  remembrance  and  of  love  and  of  gladness,  "  Rab- 
boni !"  and  would  have  clasped  his  feet.  The  whole  scene  is  too 
dramatic  to  be  interpreted.  Read  it,  and  if  you  do  not  feel  it,  no- 
body can  interpret  it  to  you.  The  whole  force  of  this  scene  was  in 
the  line  of  the  history  of  her  heart  or  past  associations,  and  of  all 
her  hopes,  and  all  her  longings,  and  all  the  visions  and  aspirations 
which  his  company  and  teaching  had  inspired  in  her.  These  had 
been  buried  with  him.  And  she  stood  before  him,  and  he  talked 
with  her,  and  not  a  single  chord  vibrated  until  he  struck  her  name ; 
then  her  whole  life  burst  out  like  the  morning. 

Our  names,  then,  stand  intimately  connected,  not  simply  with 
our  persons  and  our  qualities,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  with  our  owu 


220  THB  NAME  OF  JUS  US. 

personal  experience  with  character,  with  dispositions,  with  all  man- 
ner of  mental  traits.  But  in  the  progress  of  time,  names  come  not 
simply  to  stand  for  things  and  the  qualities  of  things,  for  character 
and  the  qualities  of  character,  but  rise  from  the  specific  and  the  indi- 
vidual, and  take  on  generic  forms.  Or  rather,  personality  may  be- 
come so  large  as  to  seem  a  genus,  and  not  a  species — still  less  an 
individual. 

Thus,  the  names  of  men  of  action  in  the  world  remain,  and  they 
interpret,  to  those  who  use  them,  whole  periods  of  history,  or  whole 
departments  of  human  development.  Where  men  have  had  to  do 
with  human  affairs  in  such  ways  as  to  prove  themselves  to  be  pre- 
eminently masters  in  any  direction,  their  name  not  only  identifies 
them  as  particular  individuals  in  history,  but  identifies  them  with 
whole  complex  developments  of  alFairs  in  history.  It  signifies  what 
a  man  has  fashioned.  Thus  the  word  Ccesar  remains  to-day  to  mark 
a  quality.  Ccesarism  indicates  certain  ideas,  or  a  certain  depart- 
ment, or  a  certain  genus,  Alexander  is  another  sucli  name.  Bona- 
parte is  another.  Bismarck,  with  his  extraordinary  mind,  is  another, 
and  will  be  so  in  times  to  come,  even  to  a  greater  extent  than  now. 
And  many  other  distinguished  persons  miglit  be  singled  out  to  show 
that  a  man's  name  does  not  stop  with  his  personality,  nor  with  the 
qualities  of  his  disposition,  but  that  it  goes  on  to  signify  large  de- 
partments of  history  which  have  been  particularly  associated  with 
him.  A  man's  name,  then,  does  not  so  much  stand  for  him  individu- 
ally, as  for  the  great  departments  of  affairs  in  which  he  has  acted. 
Numberless  examples  of  this  will  suggest  themselves  to  you.  The 
great  philosophers  and  giants  of  intellect  have  left  their  names  as  his- 
toric landmarks.  Art  and  beauty  are  also  represented  by  names.  In 
other  words,  there  have  been  names  so  associated  with  these  things 
that  when  we  think  of  them,  we  do  not  so  much  think  of  the  persons, 
as  the  scenes  in  which  they  acted,  or  the  realms  which  they  created. 
To  those  who  are  familiar  with  art  in  antiquity,  such  great  names  as 
Phidias,  and  Raphael,  and  Titian,  and  Albert  Diirer,  and  many  oth- 
ers like  them,  who  might  be  named,  do  not  stop  either  with  the 
individuals,  or  with  the  narration  of  their  history,  but  with  tlieir 
suggestion  of  certain  great  departments  of  civilization  and  refinement 
and  philosophy. 

The  same  is  true  in  respect  to  the  reverse  qualities.  There  ;  n 
names  in  which  we  have  stored  up  almost  all  that  we  ever  thought 
of  which  is  hateful  and  hideous.  Judas  is  a  receptacle  of  whatever 
is  base  to  our  thought ;  Nero  of  whatever  is  brutal  in  cruelty ;  Mac- 
chiavelli  of  whatever  is  malignant  and  selfish  and  cunning  in  crafti- 
ness ;  Arnold  of  whatever  is  wicked  and  base  in  an  unpatriotic  soul ; 


THE  NAME  OF  JES  US.  221 

and  Jeffreys  of  whatever  is  false  and  corrupt  and  oppressive  in  ju- 
dicial stations.  So  names  signify  moral  qualities,  and  departments 
of  them. 

Now,  out  of  this  thought  we  begin  to  come  near  to  some  con-' 
ception  of  what  our  text  has  declared.  That  by  reason  of  his  own 
personal  character  and  history,  God  should  give  to  Jesus  a  name, 
is  a  large  idea,  A  day  shall  come  when  Christ's  name  shall  stand 
in  the  Universe  as  the  suggestion  of  all  that  is  most  beautiful,  most 
lovely,  most  admirable,  strong,  intelligent,  and  effective  in  execu- 
tiveness ;  of  whatever  thought,  and  whatever  quality,  and  whatever 
sentiment  we  have  kindled  in  us  which  is  connected  with  any  special 
name  in  its  lower  forms.  We  shall  come  to  a  day  when  we  shall 
find  that  in  that  one  Name  Ave  rise  above  all  others,  and  that  it  com- 
prehends in  itself  that  which  on  earth  has  been  distributed  through 
ten  thousand  minor  names,  each  carrying  some  separate  quality, 
some  single  affection  or  disposition,  or  some  department  of  qualities 
or  affections.  There  shall  be  a  Name  so  large,  so  full,  that  it  shall 
include  in  it  the  sum  of  all  development  during  the  whole  period  of 
time. 

It  is  indeed  a  Name  above  every  name.  In  the  evolution  of  time 
the  experiences  of  mankind  are  growing  more  and  more  into  associ- 
ation with  that  Name.  The  best  things  which  for  the  last  two  thou- 
sand years  have  taken  place,  have  gathered  themselves  around  about 
that  Name.  Bad  as  has  been  the  handling  of  religion  ;  base  as  has 
been  much  of  the  history  of  the  Church  that  undertook  to  minister 
religion ;  corrupt  as  have  been  many  of  the  hierarchs ;  recreant  as 
have  been  many  of  the  men  who  have  enlisted  under  the  banner  of 
Christ ;  dark,  cruel,  bloody,  hideous,  infernal,  as  have  been  many  of 
the  suggestions  and  the  associations  and  the  experiences  of  the 
Christian  Chui'ch,  such  was  the  power  of  Christ,  the  beauty  of 
Christ,  that  his  name  has  risen  above  them  all.  And  the  best, 
the  sweetest,  the  purest,  the  noblest  things,  the  things  best  worth 
living  for  or  dying  for,  are  still  associated  with  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  In  spite  of  his  ministers,  in  spite  of  his  churches, 
in  spite  of  all  the  malignity  that  has  been  manifested  under  the 
cloak  of  that  Name,  its  innate  quality  and  power  and  its  fruits 
have  been  such  that  it  has  come  down  to  us,  after  all,  full  of  the 
sweetest  suggestions  of  the  most  transcendently  beautiful  things. 
And  yet,  we  are  ourselves  dim-eyed,  and  short-sighted,  and  we  see 
through  vapors,  and  have  never  seen  him  clearly.  We  have  seen 
him  as  through  a  glass  darkly.  And  in  the  small  tract  over  which 
the  race  has  passed  since  his  coming,  in  the  little  evolution  that  has 
'  taken  place  among  the  race  since  then,  it  has  not  been  Christ  in  the 


222  THE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 

body  that  exhibited  Christ,  but  Christ  in  the  great  mass  of  the  hu- 
man race,  uplifting  them  in  their  multiplex  and  multiform  relations 
in  life.  His  name  has  steadily  gained  power.  Even  they  who  theo- 
logically disown  it,  morally  receive  it,  and  call  it  transcendent.  They 
believe  in  it  who  do  not  believe  the  Book,  nor  the  supernatural  ele- 
ments in  it.  They  who  deny  divinity,  and  claim  that  Jesus  was  but 
an  extraordinary  man,  a  moral  genius,  readily  and  willingly  advance 
him  to  the  forefront.  And  if  that  be  the  ascription  of  those  who  do 
not  enter  into  sympathy  with  him,  or  with  his  name,  as  advanced  or 
advancing,  what  shall  be  the  ascription  of  those  who  are  in  sympa- 
thy with  him,  and  with  the  best  conceptions  of  things  moral  and 
spiritual  ? 

But  more  in  detail.  In  the  last  great  vision — the  final  and  en- 
during one — of  Christ,  the  intellectual  treasures  with  which  the  uni- 
verse will  then  be  acquainted  will  center  toward  him,  so  that  his 
name  will  stand  in  connection  with  all  that  we  on  earth  call  philoso- 
phy ;  with  all  the  treasures  of  knowing,  among  men ;  with  all  the 
bounties  of  combination  in  the  human  intellect.  Whatever  there  is 
to  be  that  is  resplendent,  answering  to  our  earthly  conception  of  in- 
tellectual force  and  achievement,  will  stand  connected  with  his  name 
above  every  other. 

The  truth,  the  beauty,  the  refinement  of  the  moral  sentiments,  car- 
ried through  every  phase,  through  every  combination,  through  every 
conceivable  adaptation,  with  all  the  force  that  inspiration  can  give  to 
them,  and  in  heroic  forms,  shall  stand  connected  with  Jesus  Clirist.  And 
what  is  this  but  saying  that  when  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is,  and  he  shall 
be  revealed  to  us  in  all  his  thought,  and  feeling,  and  life,  then  we  shall 
perceive  that  he  is  connected  by  his  history  with  all  forms  of  moral 
heroism?  As  Raphael's  history  connects  him  with  the  most  ex- 
quisite things  in  art ;  as  Caesar's  name  connects  him  with  the  most 
efficient  things  in  military  life  ;  as  Michael  Angelo's  skill  with  the 
chisel  connects  him  with  the  noblest  conceptions  which  man  has 
formed  of  statuary ;  as  many  a  thinker  is  connected,  by  reason  of  his 
relations  and  investigations  in  the  sphere  of  philosophy  and  thought 
with  the  brightest  achievements  of  human  genius,  so,  when  we  be- 
hold at  last  the  full  personality  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,  he  will  be 
One  of  such  moral  relations,  and  his  history  will  be  found  to  have  so 
associated  itself  with  everything  that  is  most  resjjlendent  in  intel- 
lectual thought,  and  research,  and  execution,  and  combination, 
and  creative  force,  that  that  which  is  the  noblest,  and  most  trans- 
cendent in  truth,  in  honor,  in  sublime  faith,  in  self-denial,  in  meek- 
ness, in  humility,  will  be  embraced  therein,  and  that  his  name  will 
be  verily  a  Name  above  every  name. 


THE  NAME  OF  JESUS.  223 

If  wc  say  meekness,  we  think  of  that  person  who  is  the  meek- 
est ;  if  we  say  mo^'al  courage^  it  suggests  to  our  minds  one  who 
is  characterized  by  that  quality ;  if  we  say  disinterested  love,  we 
are  reminded  of  another  who  has  boundless  philanthrophy  ;  and  if 
we  say  philosophy^  it  is  still  another  that  we  think  of.  There  is  no 
one  person  on  earth  who  is  big  enough  to  carry  all  these  guns.  Most 
men  are  like  gun-boats,  carrying  one  heavy  gun  which  swings  round 
and  round,  and  with  which  they  do  most  of  their  fighting,  the  rest 
being  done  with  small  arms.  Often  great  men  are  great  in  single  or 
but  few  directions.  None  are  completely  rounded  out  in  their  man- 
hood. But  when  we  come  to  see  the  one  Man  who  is  above  every 
other  man — the  great  typical  Man,  who  repi'esents  the  race — he  will 
be  shown  to  have  so  touched  human  life  and  human  experience  on 
every  conceivable  side,  that  his  name  will  suggest  that  which  we 
look  for  now  distributively  among  all  men. 

So  all  the  qualities  which  are  suggested  to  us  here  by  the  affec- 
tions— as  tenderness,  and  gentleness,  and  patience,  and  sweetness,  and 
the  beauty  and  rapture  of  love — will  be  found  so  centered  in  Jesns, 
that  in  the  last  revelation  of  himself,  when  we  go  where  he  is, 
and  see  him  as  he  is,  they  will  stand  in  his  name.  His  name  will 
shake  down  associations  of  these  things  upon  our  heads  with  the 
sweetest  perfume.  When  Ave  shall  see  him  as  he  is,  tlien,  whatever 
Ave  have  thought  of  distributively  on  earth  as  noble,  as  pure,  as  true, 
as  sweet,  as  grand,  as  inconceivable  in  perfection,  but  dimly  fore- 
shadowed ;  whatever  we  have  thought  of  as  courage,  as  skill,  as  jus- 
tice ;  Avhatever  we  have  thought  of  as  grand  in  poetry,  in  art, 
and  in  eloquence ;  whatever  in  sovereignty ;  whatever  in  taste  or 
in  beauty ;  whatever  Ave  have  thought  of  as  admirable  in  rulers  or 
in  subjects ;  whatever  has  called  forth  our  admiration  in  men  or  in 
women,  in  groAvn  persons  or  in  children  ;  whatever  Ave  have  thought 
of  as  beautiful  in  picture  or  statue ;  whatever  avc  have  thought  of 
as  heroic  on  the  field  or  on  the  road ;  whatever  we  have  thought  of 
as  glorious  in  aspiration  and  acliievement — Avhen  Ave  shall  see  Him 
as  he  is,  then  these  things,  distributed  through  the  race,  and  seen 
but  as  sprouting  germs,  we  shall  trace  back  to  Him,  the  Fountain 
and  Sum  of  them  all. 

''  So  that  if  you,  a  great  artist,  die,  and  rise  and  come  into  his  pres- 
ence Avith  your  best  conceptions  of  art,  and  commune  Avith  him, 
youAvill  find  that  you  have  conversed  Avith  the  supremest  Artist,  and 
you  Avill  be  filled  Avith  rapture  of  admiration. 

Or,  are  you  a  just  judge,  sitting  as  high  upon  the  sphere  of 
honor  as  one  well  may  sit  in  this  life ;  and  are  all  your  thoughts 
disciplined  and  drilled  in  such  directions  ?     When  you  rise  to  be- 


224  THE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 

hold,  througli  those  avenues  Iby  which  you  may  best  understand, 
your  wonder  and  amazement  will  be,  to  find  in  him  the  royalty  of 
those  qualities  which  on  earth  you  never  dreamed  to  exist  in  such 
perfection — not  even  in  the  ideal  days  of  prophecy. 

Ye  who  think  of  death  as  the  end  of  love — as  the  quenching  of 
the  torch  of  afl'ection ;  ye  who  think  of  tenderness  as  belonging  to 
these  mortal  scenes  ;  ye  who  mourn  the  growing  of  your  children, 
because  as  they  grow  to  man's  estate  their  ten  thousand  sweet  and 
witching  little  ways  of  love  will  perish  out  of  the  household — O 
wife-heart !  O  mother-heart !  O  lover-heart !  rising  in  the  last  day, 
in  that  Name  shall  be  more  treasure,  and  more  exquisite  beauty,  and 
more  inflections  of  love,  than  it  ever  entered  into  your  heart  to  con- 
ceive. And  all  the  witching  graces  and  developments  of  life,  looked 
back  upon  by  memory  in  its  fondest  mood,  shall  seem  to  you  but  as 
a  tangled  wilderness  of  weeds,  compared  with  the  garden  of  the 
Lord. 

Is  it  discourse  by  philosopher  ?  None  shall  have  such  sweet 
discourse  as  He.  Or  is  it  the  power  of  him  that  speaks  ?  No  orator 
shall  have  such  poAver  as  He.  From  him  came  all  things.  "  With- 
out him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made."  Or,  is  it  the 
refinement  of  the  imagination,  or  the  suggestions  of  a  chastened 
and  exalted  fancy  ?  Do  not,  because,  owing  to  your  early  training, 
religion  has  seemed  so  acerb  and  so  rigid ;  do  not,  because  religion, 
as  you  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  it,  has  been  full  of  thou  shalt 
nots,  and  because  shall  not  is  written  upon  every  sweet  and  shining 
temptation ;  do  not,  because  you  have  been  shut  up  to  days  and 
ceremonials — do  not,  for  these  reasons,  ti-ansfer  your  false  notions  of 
religion  to  the  higher  life. 

How  hideous,  I  might  almost  say,  was  heaven  as  it  used  to  be 
interpreted  to  my  childish  imagination  !  It  was  a  prison.  It  was 
built,  to  be  sure,  of  beautiful  things  ;  but  a  prison  is  a  prison  though 
it  be  built  of  alabaster,  or  silver,  or  gold.  It  was  a  place  devoid 
of  the  freedom  and  the  enjoyments  of  home.  It  was  wanting  in 
those  elements  which  make  life  joyous  and  happy.  And  if  lieaven 
be  a  place  of  propriety ;  if  it  be  a  place  in  which  everybody  is  reg- 
imented ;  if  it  be  a  place  where,  at  stated  times,  we  shall  turn  and 
bow  one  way,  and  then  turn  and  bow  the  other  way,  and  say  our 
prayers,  and  repeat  our  hymns — if  that  be  heaven,  it  is  a  mechanical 
heaven  ;  it  is  an  automaton's  heaven ;  it  is  a  machine-heaven ;  it  is  a 
mechanician's  heaven,  and  a  poor  one  at  that.  But  to  me  heaven  is 
not  such  a  place.  I  gather,  to  represent  my  heaven,  whatever  there 
is  that  is  most  resplendent  on  earth.  When  I  paint  my  picture 
of  heaven,  I  borrow  from  the  clouds ;  I  borrow  from  the  morning 


THE  NAME  OF  JESUS.  225 

and  the  evening ;  1  borrow  from  the  severe  grandeur  of  the  Avin- 
ter,  and  the  luscious  luxuriance  of  summer.  When  I  portray  my 
heaven,  and  its  population,  I  take  whatever  on  earth  is  most  lithe, 
most  bewitching,  most  genial,  and  sweetest  in  nature  and  society.  I 
select  for  my  sitters  those  that  are  the  noblest-browed ;  those  that 
I  would  go  farthest  to  see ;  those  that  excite  in  me  the  most  won- 
der and  rapture,  I  get  together  all  these  treasures,  and  with  them 
I  depict  my  heaven. 

But  these  are  only  the  accessories.  There  is  a  Name  in  which 
reside  all  the  qualities  that  inspired  these  thingi.. 

And  my  Saviour  is  One  with  whom  I  long  to  be  most  intimate,  and 
in  whose  presence  I  shall  be  most  rapturously  happy,  and  ineifably 
blessed.  And  whatever  direction  I  take — if  I  go  to  the  east  or  to 
the  west,  to  the  north  or  to  the  south,  upward  or  downward — there 
is  my  Christ  with  me.  Whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence,  O 
Chief  among  ten  thousand,  and  altogether  lovely  ? 

I  have  not  far  to  go  to  satisfy  you  that  if  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  a  name  that  covers  the  whole  round  of  human  faculties,  that  fills 
itself  full  of  the  best  associations  of  our  best  hours,  it  will  go  in- 
finitely beyond  the  most  instructed  human  experience.  And  I  need 
not  say  what  the  effect  of  such  a  Name  would  be. 

I  never  saw  a  triumphant  scene  that  had  not  a  minor  chord 
in  it.  I  remember,  as  if  it  were  but  yesterday,  the  time  when 
Kossuth  made  his  magnificent  passage  from  Castle  Garden  up 
through  Broadway.  I  remember  the  surging  of  the  people.  I  re- 
member the  wealth  of  enthusiasm  that  was  manifested.  I  remember 
the  helplessness  of  that  roar  which  rolled  like  a  storm-w^ave  upon 
the  shore  of  the  ocean,  and  which  seemed  feeble  and  imimpressive 
as  compared  with  what  the  people  wanted  to  do.  And  I  could  not 
help  feeling  how  the  human  heart  longs  for  something  to  worship. 
I  could  not  but  think  how,  when  you  bring  before  men,  embodied, 
that  which  answers  to  their  conception  of  heroism,  their  whole  soul 
goes  out  yearning  for  it.  Men  who  are  not  good,  long  to  see  people 
who  are  good.  Men  wlio  are  inexpert,  love  to  gaze  upon  expert 
men.  Cowards  like  to  see  heroes.  And  all  humanity,  by  its  very 
consciousness  of  weakness,  by  its  very  infirmities,  by  the  dim  light 
of  its  aspirations,  longs  to  find  something  that  is  divine.  There  are 
things  in  every  man  that  are  reaching  out  after  the  God. 

And  so,  when  these  qualities  and  tendencies  of  our  nature  have 
been  gathered  up,  as  it  were  ;  when  they  have  been  trained  ;  when 
they  drop  from  the  stem  on  which  they  were  carried  during  their 
first  stages ;  when  we  are  brought  into  the  other  life  under  other 
conditions,  where  that  which  is  best  in  us  shall  have  the  first  chance, 


226  TEE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 

and  that  which  is  worst  in  us  is  left  behind,  and  we  stand  in  the 
presence  of  this  royal  Person  whose  name  is  connected  with  every- 
thing that  is  transcendent  and  noble  in  our  conceptions,  need  I  say 
what  will  be  the  result  ?  Need  I  say  that  there  will  be  a  fulfilling 
of  the  declaration : 

"  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above 
every  name:  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  how,  of  things  in 
heaven  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth  "? — 
a  Name  which,  being  pronounced,  as  it  were  makes  the  very  universe 
quiver  with  spontaneous  and  irresistible  enthusiasm. 

It  will  touch  every  chord  of  sensibility.  The  very  memory  of 
sorrow  and  of  joy  combining  the  rapture  of  the  ennobled  in  the 
heavenly  land  ;  the  fulfilling  of  all  dim  thoughts  and  hopes ;  the 
reappearing  of  everything  that  was  lost  and  seemingly  annihilated 
to  us  ;  all  which  the  heart  has  felt  of  ecstasy — these  shall  be  so  con- 
nected with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  he  will  seem  to  be  the  em- 
bodiment of  all  those  things  which  we  have  most  dimly  thought  of 
as  possibilities,  and  longed  for.  There  our  Brother,  our  typical 
Head,  the  man  Christ  Jesus  will  stand  bodying  forth  to  us  the  whole 
of  the  existence  of  that  which  is  possible  in  such  a  being  as  ours. 
And  the  pai'ticipation  of  it,  the  associations  of  it,  will  bring  every 
knee  to  bow,  and  every  tongue  to  confess  that  he  is  Lord.  And  it 
will  be  a  spontaneous  homage.  It  will  be  a.  homage  rendered,  not 
because  you  must  render  it,  but  because  you  cannot  help  it. 

It  is  also  affirmed  that  in  that  day  and  hour  the  rapture  of  the 
universe  in  the  presence  of  that  name,  or  that  person  Jesus,  will  be 
the  greatest  honor  that  can  be  conferred  upon  God  the  Father. 

"  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above 
every  name :  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of  thin^ja 
in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth;  and  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father." 

I  have  seen  in  the  thicket  little  birds,  that  had  caught  and  fast- 
ened themselves,  and  that,  while  their  companions  were  out  among 
the  leaves,  or  above  them  singing  in  the  clear  blue,  fluttered  and 
strove,  but  could  not  free  themselves ;  and  I  have  seen  many  sweet 
and  tender  hearts  that  longed  to  pray  to  Christ  Jesus,  but  that  were 
so  bewildered  with  the  questions  that  had  thralled  them,  that  they 
did  not  dare  to  pay  divine  honors  to  that  sacred  name.  It  is  to  you 
I  come,  bringing  to-day  this  glorious  emancipation.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  accept  one  view  or  another ;  but  I  do  ask  you  to  hear  me 
while  I  declare  this  :  God  has  exalted  Jesus  to  the  forefront  of  the 
universe  ;  and  he  has  given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  other 
name  to  you  and  to  your  thought ;  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  of  things  in  earth,  of  things 


THU  NAME  OF  JESUS.  227 

tinder  the  earth,  of  thmgs  throughout  the  universe  ;  and  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord^  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father.  Go  as  far  as  that,  and  I  will  not  trouble  you  any  farther. 
You  need  not  reason  ;  you  need  not  undertake  to  settle  a 'thousand 
questions  of  theology  ;  but  if,  looking  upon  Jesus,  your  heart  longs 
to  ascribe  glory  and  honor  and  praise  to  him,  and  if  you  Avant  to 
worship  hira,  there  is  your  charter — there  is  your  liberty.  For,  can 
one  be  condemned  in  the  great  hour  of  disclosure  who  rises  and 
says,  "  I  bowed  the  knee,  and  I  confessed  that  Jesus  was  Lord :  it 
was  in  obedience  to  that  command,  that  I  might  honor  the  Father"? 

How  does  it  honor  him  ?  I  do  not  know.  You  do  not  know. 
You  will  see  by  and  by  how  it  honors  hira.  But  if  there  is  one 
truth  sweetly  patent  in  the  Bible,  it  is  this :  that  if  any  ransomed 
soul  wants  to  ascribe  to  Christ  everj'-thing  that  one  soul  can  ascribe 
to  another,  there  is  an  open  door  to  do  it.  Here  is  permission  for  it. 
It  is  no  idolatry. 

Do  you  suppose  that  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
sit  in  snch  niggling  jealousy  that  they  grudge  to  each  other  the 
affections  of  men  on  earth  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  there  is  any  such 
feeling  of  loftiness  or  superiority  among  the  Persons  of  the  God- 
Head  that  if  any  soul  wants  to  give  a  rapturous  expression  of  its 
love  to  the  Father,  or  the  Son,  or  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  is  tripped  up 
by  some  jealousy  between  them  ?  To  suppose  any  such  thing  as 
this  is  to  ascribe  the  meanest  feelings  to  the  highest  divine  ex- 
istences. 

Then  love,  worship,  bow  down,  until  there  is  no  thought  or  feel- 
ing in  you  that  will  bow  any  lower  than  it  bows  to  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  You  cannot  make  that  name  more  blessed  than 
God  is  making  it ;  nor  can  you  ascribe  any  divine  attribute  to  it  that 
has  not  already  been  ascribed  to  it.  So  come  out  of  your  bondao-e, 
out  of  your  dialectical  state,  out  of  your  thrall,  and  be  delivered 
forever  and  forever  from  the  power  of  sin  and  Satan.  Go  with  your 
tribute  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  you  shall  be  accepted.  If  you 
do  not  know  how  to  manage  it,  God  knows  to  manage  it  for  you. 

We  shall,  perhaps,  derive  further  instruction,  if,  leaving  these 
higher  thoughts,  we  begin  again  at  the  lower  point.  I  have  en- 
deavored, by  some  few  faint  words  and  images,  to  give  you  an  idea 
of  what  this  name  of  Christ  is,  and  is  to  be.  And  the  question  re- 
curs. What  is  the  name  of  Christ  now  ?  What  is  it  to  you  ?  To 
many  persons  the  name  of  Christ  is  a  mere  mnemotechnic  symbol 
for  historical  purposes — simply  a  word  for  a  date. 

With  others,  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  word  of  superstitioa 
Their  Christ  is  that  which  narrows  them.     To  them  the  name  of 


228  THE  NAME  OF  JES  US. 

Christ  is  only  another  name  clothing  the  poorest  ideas  of  moral- 
ity and  of  authority.  There  is  very  little  in  it  that  is  exhilarating 
to  them.  There  is  very  little  to  it  that  touches  in  them  the  chords 
of  gratitude,  of  enthusiasm,  or  any  form  of  heroism.  I 

To  others  it  is  a  Name  of  controversy.  As  they  regard  it,  it  is 
full  of  suspicions  and  bitternesses  and  divisions.  And  so,  again  His 
heart  is  pierced.  Again  His  raiment  is  divided.  There  are  many 
whose  only  thought  of  the  New  Testament  is  as  of  a  magazine  of 
artillery.  There  is  no  sweetness  in  texts,  to  their  taste.  They  value 
them  merely  as  clubs  to  be  hewn  for  the  conflict  which  they  are 
waging.  The  wondrous  beauty  of  the  love  of  Christ,  of  his  words 
themselves,  are  but  so  much  metal  with  which  they  forge  swords 
and  armor  and  breastplates  as  they  go  out  against  each  other  in 
theological  controversy.  The  garden  of  the  Lord,  the  exquisite 
beauty  of  the  New  Testament,  is  as  if  the  wild  boar  of  the  forest 
had  desolated  it.  On  the  very  tree  of  life  he  whets  his  tusks,  that 
he  may  go  into  belluine  and  savage  warfare. 

I  know  of  nothing  which  seems  more  offensive  to  me  than  the 
associations  which  I  have  but  just  got  over,  connected  with  texts  of 
the  New  Testament  which  should  rise  up  as  so  many  fair  pictures 
to  us — as  so  many  flowers  in  the  peaceful  meadows.  And  over  these 
very  scenes  in  which  the  life  of  Christ  is  opened,  that  it  might  come 
to  our  heart  or  imagination  and  inspire  and  guide  us  in  the  best 
feelings  of  our  life — over  all  these  tranquil  scenes  fierce  war  has 
raged  ;  and  every  part  of  the  battle-field  in  the  four  Gospels,  almost, 
is  redolent,  not  so  much  of  Christ  as  of  the  controversies  about 
Christ  which  have  prevailed  in  the  Christian  church.  Happy  will 
be  those  ages  in  which  the  associations  of  the  New  Testament  are 
not  controversial. 

Far  higher  than  these  are  those  associations  which  I  trust  many 
of  you  are  not  unfamiliar  with  in  your  own  personality  and  experi- 
ence and  history,  by  which  your  childhood  is  connected  with  Christ. 
Blessed  is  that  household  which  has  an  interpreting  father  or  mother 
whose  heart  prophesies  to  the  children  the  best  things  of  the  God- 
head on  the  side  of  love  and  lovingness ;  and  unhappy  is  that  house- 
hold who  have  no  heaven,  though  they  hope  one  day  to  earn  one — 
those  children  whose  calling  and  election  has  not  yet  been  made 
sure ;  those  children  who  are  bowed  down  with  weakness  and  heart- 
sickness  and  disconsolateness  from  immaturity  and  unripeness,  and 
yet  have  no  Mediator,  no  brooding  God,  and  no  mother-heart  in  God. 

Many  children  have  no  God.  Many  children  have  a  God  that  is 
metamorphosed  and  made  into  a  demon.  The  God  of  many  chil- 
dren seems  to  be  without  the  element  of  love  to  them.     He  seems 


TEE  NAME  OF  JES  US.  229 

to  be  a  God  of  severity,  of  sternness,  of  wrath.  They  hope  one 
day  to  be  able  to  placate  him,  to  get  on  the  sunny  side  of  hina.  And 
then  they  think  they  will  be  happy.  But  now  it  is  Winter  to  them, 
and  they  are  on  the  north  side  of  him.  Blessed  are  they  who  have 
outgrown  any  such  experience  as  this,  having  found  the  grace  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  fellowship  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

How  many  of  you  have  associations  connected  with  Christ  which 
make  hun  to  you  what  he  is  said  to  be  in  the  Scriptures  ;  so  that 
you  can  say,  as  the  people  of  Samaria  said  to  the  woman,  "  Now  we 
believe,  not  because  of  the  things  which  thou  didst  tell  us,  but  be- 
cause we  have  seen  Him  ourselves"  ? 

How  many  have  had  a  revelation  of  Christ  in  sorrow,  in  yearn- 
ings, in  suspense,  in  anguish,  in  raptures  of  joy,  in  attainment,  in 
strife,  in  defeat,  and  in  victory !  How  many  persons  are  there 
whose  lives  have  been  lives  that  seemed  to  be  explorations  in  that 
direction,  and  whose  thought  of  Christ  is  intimately  connected  with 
their  whole  warfare,  brought  to  their  own  personality  ! 

But  by  and  by  all  these  other  names  will  fail.  By  and  by  the 
name  of  superstition  will  cease,  and  the  name  of  controversy  will 
cease,  and  the  name  of  philosophy  will  cease,  and  the  name  of  pri 
vate  and  personal  experience  will  cease,  and  we  shall  i-ise  into  a 
common  inheritance  of  that  Name  which  is  above  every  name — 
fuller,  nobler,  grander,  more  powerful ;  of  that  Name  which  is  full  of 
fiery  inspiration  to  every  part  of  our  nature ;  which  gives  unity  to 
our  whole  scattered  life ;  and  which  shall  gather  us  into  our  own 
individuality,  and  make  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God ;  of  that  Name 
which  shall  have  molded  and  perfected  a  true  manhood  in  us. 
And  then  we  shall  stand  before  the  sovereign  King  of  all  that  we  are 
and  hope  to  be. 

The  day  cannot  be  far  away  when  that  Name  shall  come  to  you, 
filling  the  heaven,  filling  every  avenue  of  joy  and  wonder  and  sur- 
prise. What  has  life  here  to  be  compared  with  that  ?  Why  are  we 
so  anxious  to  live  ?  Why  do  we  take  the  broken  fragments,  the 
scattered  elements,  and  think  them  such  treasure  that  we  do  not  de- 
sire to  go  up  to  the  mountain  from  which  they  came  ?  Why  should 
we  be  so  delighted  with  a  little  spark  of  beauty,  that  we  should  not 
desire  to  see  the  flame  of  beauty  from  which  it  sprang  ?  Why  should 
we  cling  to  the  imperfect  forms  of  goodness  about  us,  and  not  de- 
sire to  see  the  only  perfect  form  ? 

Speed,  then,  O  days  I  Hasten,  O  night  of  life  !  Let  the  Winter 
pass.      Come,  O  Spring  ! — that   better   spring,   when  the  Sun   of 


230  THE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 

Righteousness  shall  arise  with  healing  in  his  wings,  and  we  shall 
know  as  we  are  known,  and  be  forever  with  the  Lord. 


PRATER  BEFORE  THE  SERMOK 

We  ask  thy  help,  our  heavenly  Father,  that  we  may  gain  release  from 
our  own  ignorance,  and  that,  under  the  inspiration  of  thy  Spirit,  we  may 
rise  to  some  such  thought  of  thee  as  shall  fill  our  hearts  with  gladness,  and 
inspire  us  with  hope  and  with  love.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  art  bringing 
us,  by  a  thousand  influences,  through  grace,  through  providence,  and 
through  the  ministration  of  strength  in  us,  toward  that  estate  of  blessedness 
which  they  have  who  are  in  thy  presence,  and  who  see  thee  as  thou  art,  and 
forever  dwell  with  thee.  On  this  tumultuous  earth  is  yet  sighing.  Groans 
and  pains  are  yet  here.  Here,  is  change.  Here,  hope  rushes  to  disappoint- 
ment, and  conceptions  come  untimely  to  blight.  And  we  are  glad  that  just 
before  us  is  a  land  where  all  expectation  is  more  than  fulfilled ;  where  all 
things  are  perfect,  or  growing  toward  perfection;  where  harmony  has  sup- 
pressed all  difference,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  have  fled  away ;  where  there 
are  no  more  tears,  and  where  there  is  no  more  pain  nor  sickness,  forever. 
We  rejoice  that  there  is  a  light  above  our  darkness ;  that  there  is  eternal 
day  burning  unconsumed  forever;  and  that  all  the  tendencies  of  life  are 
thitherward.  In  spite  of  what  we  see,  in  spite  of  what  we  hear,  in  spite  of 
all  that  is  evil,  and  all  the  causes  that  are  working  to  destroy,  and  all  that 
maketh  pain  and  suffering,  we  rejoice  that  we  may  believe  in  a  Redeemer. 
Thou,  O  Saviour !  art  not  for  the  few.  Thou  art  the  One  of  ages.  The  circuit 
of  thy  being  is  infinite,  and  thy  word  is  not  less,  and  thou  art  going  accord- 
ing to  thine  own  way,  yet  undisclosed  to  us,  step  by  step,  through  the  periods 
of  time,  and  art  working  out  gloriously,  beyond  all  comprehension  of  men, 
thy  plans,  and  their  eternal  good.  The  wilderness  shall  bud  and  blossom  as 
the  rose.  The  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and  come  to  Zion  with 
songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  head. 

We  are  as  those  that  are  lost  in  the  wilderness.    We  long  to  behold  the 
garden-time.    We  listen  to  hear  the  voice  that  shall  call  us  from  our  win. 
We  wait  for  the  end  which  we  cannot  see,  but  which  we  feel  pressing  i 
and  leading  us  in  the  right  way.    We  rejoice  that  our  faith  is  so  much  moj 
jomfortiug  than  our  sight.    We  ask  to  be  delivered  from  the  thrall  of  our 
senses,  and  from  those  lower  reasonings  which  belong  to  these  mortal  bodies 
in  contact   with  this  material  world.    We  ask  for  that  power  of  faith  by 
which  we  shall  be  able  to  realize  the  invisible  and  the  ineffable.    We  ask 
that  we  may  be  lifted  by  inspiration  into  that  realm  where  we  shall  reason 
according  to  higher  things.    We  pray  for  that  rest,  we  pray  for  that  confi- 
dence, we  pray  for  that  hope,  which  endures  through  the  night.    We  pray 
for  God  in  us;  forlmmanuel;  for  the  divine  consolation;  for  thy  forgive- 
ness; for  the  cleansing  of  thy  Spirit;  for  that  food  which  thou  art  to  every 
hungry  soul ;  for  that  water  of  life  by  which  thou  dost  quench  evil  desire, 
and  satisfy  holy  yearning. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord !  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  every  one  of  us 
this  realization  of  thee,  this  sense  of  sonship,  and  this  glorious  certitude 
that  nothing  shall  separate  from  God  those  that  love  him  through  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt,  according  to  the 
infinite  mercy  of  thine  own  heart,  and  not  according  to  the  wisdom  of  our 
understanding,  nor  according  to  the  wisdom  of  our  supplication,  grant  unto 


THE  NAME  OF  JESUS.  231 

us  all  the  thinp;s  which  we  need.  Wilt  thou  guide  us  by  thy  providence- 
Wilt  thou  ordain  the  events  that  surround  us  at  home  and  abroad.  Wilt 
thou  grant  that  from  day  to  day,  all  the  multiform  affairs  that  come,  we 
know  not  whence,  and  rush,  we  know  not  whither,  may  work  for  good  to 
us.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  ripen  us,  and  that  we  may  see 
in  ourselves  the  growing  savor  of  the  early  summer. 

We  pray  for  all  that  are  distressed  in  mind ;  for  all  that  look  backward 
upon  the  waste  of  life,  upon  its  innumerable  mistakes,  and  bemoan  them- 
selves. And  we  pray  that  their  sense  of  inferiority  and  sinfulness  may  not 
bring  discouragement.  May  they  look  to  their  Physician,  and  for  their 
trouble  find  remedy  in  biui. 

We  pray  for  all  that  aw  troubled  and  bereaved,  and  that  are  mourning 
over  sorrows  fresh  made.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  appear  to  every  one  of 
them,  and  that  thou  wilt  minister  to  their  souls  that  consolation  which  men 
cannot  give,  and  which,  when  thou  hast  imparted  it,  men  cannot  take 
away. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  be  very  near  to  those  who  feel  sensible, 
to-day,  that  they  are  not  under  God's  guidance.  If  there  are  any  who 
stand  upon  perilous  places  where  they  may  in  a  moment  be  overwhelmed 
and  destroyed,  and  who  know  it,  and  who  hardly  know  where  to  look,  we 
beseech  of  thee  that  they  may  feel  that  thou  art  near  to  them,  cooling  their 
temper  of  passion ;  that  thou  art  near  to  them  giving  stability  to  their  bet- 
ter purposes,  and  inspiring  them  with  a  higher  and  holier  life. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  those  who  are  tempted, 
and  who  have  been  snared  by  temptation,  and  who,  yet,  are  not  corrupted 
nor  carried  away  utterly.  Oh,  may  they  be  restored  to  thee.  May  they  be 
delivered  from  the  devourer,  and  be  brought  back  to  the  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  their  souls. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord!  that  thou  wilt  be  near  to  those  on  whom 
rest  heavy  burdens.  Grant  that  as  their  day  is,  so  their  strength  may  be. 
And  grant  that  they  who  are  perplexed,  and  seem  wearing  out  with  care, 
may  learn  the  divine  art  of  casting  their  burden  on  the  Lord.  Wilt  thou 
sustain  them,  and  give  them  clearness  of  judgment.  Grant  them  wisdom 
of  purpose,  and  patience  in  execution;  and  more  and  more  may  they  learn 
how  to  use  the  world  as  not  abusing  it ;  and  how  to  reap  advantage  among 
their  fellow-men  without  destroying ;  and  how  to  live  and  labor  by  their 
higher  and  nobler  nature,  and  not  by  the  ministration  of  their  lower  feel- 
ings. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  our  God !  that  thou  wilt  grant  thatmore 
and  more  we  may  learn  to  be  bound  to  one  another  in  a  truer  sympathy. 
May  we  interpret,  not  from  the  side  of  hatred,  but  from  the  side  of  charity. 
May  we  not  be  armed  against  men  with  impulses  combative  and  destructive; 
but  may  we  be  more  and  more  meek  and  sympathizing  and  all-healing  in 
our  desires.  We  pray  for  the  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  Christ.  We  pray 
that  we  may  feel  his  presence,  though  not  in  any  tangible  and  visible  form, 
yet  diffused,  according  to  his  gracious  promise,  in  the  household  and  in  the 
hearts  of  his  people.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  we  may  discern  the  begin- 
nings of  heaven  even  upon  earth. 

We  pray  for  all  those  that  are  not  with  us  to-day,  but  that  think  of  us 
— some  from  beds  of  sickness ;  some  from  watching-places,  where  they  are 
waiting  patiently  upon  those  that  are  sick ;  some  from  upon  the  sea  and  its 
tossing  waves ;  and  some  from  sanctuaries  of  the  wilderness,  from  forests, 
afar  off. 

Grant,  to-day,  heavenly  food,  heavenly  light,  and  heavenly  Are,  to  all 
those  who  are  of  this  household  of  faith.  And  may  the  mercy  of  God,  which 
already  we  feel,  and  which  yet  more  we  supplicate,  go  everywhere,  among 


232  'I'HE  NAME  OF  JUS  US. 

all  those  hearts  which  are  united  to  ours  by  the  sympathy  of  love.  And  we 
pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  in  our  midst  who  are  laboring  for  the  young, 
for  the  ignorant,  for  the  outcast,  for  the  wanderer.  We  pray  that  thou 
wilt  never  let  their  zeal  fail.  May  they  not  be  weary  in  well-doing.  And 
may  they  that  water  be  themselves  watered  of  God.  And  we  pray  that  thus 
they  may  find  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  giv^e  than  to  receive. 

We  pray  for  the  children.  Will  the  Lord  grant  that  they  may  grow  up 
in  strength,  in  manliness,  and  in  virtue.  May  they  grow  up  to  love  their 
country,  and  to  love  their  fellow-men  of  every  land,  with  a  larger  Christian 
patriotism,  and  with  a  larger  charity  for  mankind  than  we  have  had.  We 
pray  that  they  may  be  saved  from  vice ;  from  all  the  evils  of  inexperience ; 
from  the  waste  and  wear  of  all  passions ;  and  may  they  grow  up  confirmed 
in  virtue  and  in  piety,  to  do  nobler  work,  in  a  nobler  way.  We  long  for  the 
time  when  the  earth  shall  be  crowned  with  a  better  generation  of  men,  and 
when  living  and  life  shall  be  purer  and  grander.  We  beseech  of  thee,  O 
Lord!  that  thou  wilt  not  let  the  years  delay,  but  make  haste  and  come ;  for 
the  whole  earth  is  weary  with  waiting.  How  much  is  yet  dark !  How  much 
is  but  in  twilight !  How  much  of  that  which  is  in  twilight  promises  but  a 
cloudy  day !  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  to  complete  thy  work ;  to  advance  the  con- 
ditions of  men  ;  to  perfect  the  glorious  things  which  thou  hast  spoken  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets.  Bring  in  the  latter-day  glory,  when  there  shall  be 
no  war,  and  no  misunderstandings,  and  no  animosities,  and  no  separations* 
and  no  envyings,  and  no  jealousies,  and  no  malign  feelings ;  but  when  joy, 
and  peace,  and  purity,  and  truth,  and  meekness,  and  gentleness,  shall  have 
possession  of  the  whole  earth. 
And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.    Amen, 


XII. 

The  Lesson  from  Paris. 


THE  LESSON  EROM  PAEIS. 


"  How  rauch  she  hath  glorified  herself,  and  lived  deliciously,  so  much 
torment  and  sorrow  give  her  ;  for  she  saith  in  her  heart,  I  sit  a  queen,  and 
am  no  widow,  and  shall  see  no  sorrow.  Therefore  shall  her  plagues  come 
in  one  day,  d^ath,  and  mourning,  and  famine ;  and  she  shall  be  utterly 
burned  with  fire ;  for  strong  is  the  Lord  God  who  judgeth  her."— Rev. 
xviii.,  7,  8. 


I  do  not  apply  these  words  to  the  condition  of  the  fashionable 
capital  of  Europe,  as  if  I  supposed  they  were  a  prochecy  ;  although, 
if  they  were,  we  scarcely  can  imagine  how  the  lines  could  have 
been  framed  more  exactly  to  fit  the  condition  of  affairs.  It  is  rather 
because  of  this  singular  adaptation,  and  rather  as  an  illustration, 
that  I  have  taken  them,  thau  as  a  part  of  i^rophecy. 

The  outburst  of  war,  which  last  summer  took  place  in  Europe 
was  one  of  the  most  sudden  and  terrific  which  ever  visited  that  war- 
worn continent  ;  and  the  results  were  without  a  parallel  in  history. 
It  seemed  as  though  wars  had  been  so  numerous  that  they  scarcely 
could  make  for  themselves  a  new  path  and  a  new  issue  ;  but  we  were 
mistaken.  In  one  campaign,  the  proudest  and  most  warlike  nation 
went  to  pieces  like  clay  before  iron.  And  the  world  felt  that  it  had 
been  living  in  an  illusion ;  that  this  empire  had  not  been  strono-  but 
had  only  pretended  to  be,  so  easily  was  it  destroyed,  and  so  utterly 
futile  Avas  every  exertion  of  its  strength. 

The  whole  world  was  moved,  not  to  wonder  alone,  but  to  pro- 
found compassion.  And  then,  Avhen  the  severity  of  battle  remitted 
so  that  access  might  be  had,  the  hand  of  charity  was  reached  out 
from  every  civilized  people  on  the  globe,  somewhat  to  alleviate  the 
distressing  wounds  and  calamities  which  war  had  made  in  France. 
And  none  of  us  expected,  then,  that  there  would  speedily  sprino-  out 
of  that  war  another  war  more  cruel  and  more  terrible  than  anything 
that  had  gone  before. 

Scarcely  had  the  most  elegant  capital  of  Europe  escaped  from 
the  misery  of  famine,  before  it  fell  into  the  clutches  of  misrule  ;  and 
the  scenes  which  have  transpired  in  Paris  during  the  last  month 

Sunday  Evening,  May  28,  1871.    Lesson:  Rev.  XVIII.,  1-8.    Hymns  (Plymouth 
CoUcction) :  Nos.  1020, 1011,  983. 


236  THE  LESSON  FROM  PARIS, 

increasing  in  horror  every  week  and  every  day,  have  filled  the  world 
with  amazement,  and  shocked  every  sensibility. 

In  no  other  city  could  the  contrast  of  "former  gayety  with  pres- 
ent wretchedness  be  so  striking.  There  are  hundreds  that  sit  before 
me  who  have  made  their  pilgrimages  thither,  who  have  dwelt  in 
its  palaces,  who  have  strolled  through  its  galleries  with  delight,  who 
have  admired  its  cleanliness,  and  who  have  marveled  at  the  abun- 
dance of  its  resources  for  satisfying  the  rarest  appetite  and  the  most 
exquisite  taste.  Here  was  gayety  almost  without  a  cloud.  Here  was 
festivity  that  beat  with  dancing  foot  the  hours  almost  around  the 
year.  Was  there  ever  any  place  on  earth  so  fashioned  to  make  men 
gay,  and  genial,  and  happy,  as  Paris  ?  Its  government,  its  order, 
its  safety,  its  cleanliness,  its  economies,  its  rarities,  its  luxuries,  its 
art,  its  science,  its  beauty — the  imagination  teems  with  these  ele- 
ments which  belonged  to  it;  and  now  it  is  soaked  with  blood. 
Many  of  its  fairest  structures  are  smoldering  in  ashes.  Thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  festering  corpses  lie  along  the  streets. 
Multitudes  of  its  people  are  in  exile.  More  of  them  are  dead  ;  and 
many  others  wish  they  were  dead.  The  scenes  of  the  hideous 
French  Revolution  are  enacted  again.  Evidently  there  is  the  same 
people  there.  Their  nature  is  not  changed.  Beneath  all  this  gayety, 
beneath  all  this  kindliness,  there  is  the  terrible  ferocity  of  the  tiger. 
!  It  will  not,  however,  do  for  us  to  look  upon  this  with  mere  ex- 
clamatory feeling.  Still  less  should  we  congratulate  ourselves  upon 
our  own  safety  and  superiority.  We  may  not  always  be  secure.  It 
is  true  that  we  are  of  a  different  race-stock  ;  it  is  true  that  we  have 
had  a  different  political  education  ;  it  is  true  that  our  industrial  re- 
lations are  very  different ;  but,  after  all,  there  is  a  certain  general 
likeness  in  human  nature  ;  and  no  nation  (in  the  contiguity  of  na- 
tions, by  reason  of  the  annihilation  of  space  through  magnetism)  can 
now  afford  to  see  the  experiments  which  are  going  on  in  any  other 
nation  without  taking  heed  of  its  own  possibilities.  At  any  rate,  if 
we  mean  to  live,  it  must  be  by  wisdom  derived  from  others'  misfor- 
tunes ;  it  must  be  by  taking  heed  of  their  mistakes,  and  avoiding 
them. 

The  universal  horror  of  the  cruelty  of  the  murderous  wretches 
that  have  had  possession  of  Paris  is  well  founded.  Greater  cruelties, 
I  apprehend,  have  been  ;  and  yet,  the  wantonness  of  the  deeds  that 
have  taken  place  there  admit  of  no  extenuation,  and  no  apology. 
They  may,  however,  admit  of  some  explanation. 

There  was  no  end  in  view  to  be  promoted  by  the  sacrifice  of 
life.  There  were  ends  that  they  were  seeking,  but  they  were  ends 
which  were  thwarted  by  cruelty.     Blood  cements  nothing. 


THE  LESSON  FROM  FA  BIS.  237 

We  must  not,  however,  roll  up  this  murdering  mass  of  men  as 
simply  monsters,  aeting  without  an  idea,  and  only  inspired  by  the 
insanity  of  fanaticism,  and  a  fanaticism  of  cruelty.  They  were  seek- 
ing, really,  the  reconstruction  of  the  State.  They  were  philosophers. 
Tliey  were  organized  for  far-reaching  political  ends. 

Who  were  they?  What  was  their  philosophy?  What  were 
their  aims  ?  We  hear  much  of  the  Communist  and  of  the  Com- 
mune ;  and  yet,  one  would  scarcely  choose  to  employ  his  own  judg- 
ment in  describing  them.  But  it  may  be  fair  to  take  the  descrip- 
tion and  judgment  of  one  who,  if  not  of  them,  is  closely  allied  to 
them,  or  next  in  gradation  from  them,  and  who  in  many  points  holds 
their  sentiments. 

I  select  from  the  New  York  World  newspaper  a  letter  Avritten 
by  Robinct,  the  Positivist,  of  Paris,  and  sent  to  Professor  Beesley  in 
London,  and  communicated  to  this  New  York  paper  by  its  London 
correspondent.  Robinet  says  of  the  Communists,  from  whom  he 
separates  himself  distinctly,  but  with  whom  he  also  has  strong  affini- 
ties in  many  single  points  : 

"  Their  philosophy  is  atheism,  materialism,  the  negation  of  all  religion. 
Their  political  programme  is  absolute  individual  liberty,  by  means  of  the 
suppression  of  governments,  and  the  division  of  nationalities  into  Com- 
munes more  or  less  federated.  Their  political  economy  consists  essentially 
in  the  dispossession,  with  compensation,  of  the  present  holders  of  capital, 
and  in  assigning  the  coin,  instruments  of  labor,  and  land,  to  associations  of 
workmen.  And  their  historical  theory  is,  that  the  nobility  and  the  bourgeois 
have  each  had  their  reign,  and  that  the  turn  of  the  proletariat  has  now 
come.  They  exclude  all  that  is  outside  of  the  working  class  from  society, 
considering  it  as  socially  and  even  physiologically  effete." 

Such  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  National 
Guard  and  of  the  Communal  Council,  sitting  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
which,  since  the  18th  of  last  March  have  been  absolute  masters  of 
Paris. 

He  goes  on  to  state  : 

"Neither  the  Committee  nor  the  Council  has  put  forward  this  pro- 
gramme in  an  official  way,  and  they  defer  the  execution  of  it  by  govern- 
ment or  forcible  means,  till  after  the  victory  which  they  reckon  on  gaining 
over  the  Versaillist  party." 

The  extraordinary  part  of  this  is,  that  it  is  not  merely  the  up- 
burst  of  a  rabble  which  we  have  seen  in  Paris,  that  it  is  not  merely 
the  fury  of  men  suifering  physical  wretchedness,  as  lias  been  sup- 
posed. Such  brutal  civil  wars  all  ages  have  seen.  With  paroxysms 
of  cruelty  from  men  that  wreak  their  vengence  without  discrimina- 
tion or  intelligence  the  world  is  not  unacquainted.  But  this  is  a 
crusade  in  favor  of  certain  distinct,  moral,  political  and  social  ideas. 
The  working  men  of  Paris  have  been  studying  government.     They 


238  THE  LESSON  FBOM  PAEIS. 

have  read,  talked,  lectured,  and  listened.  Doubtless  they  have  had 
educated  leaders.  Men  of  ability,  and  of  science,  and  bf  philosophy, 
have  indoctrinated  them.  And  these  are  their  pupils.  The  vast 
mass  of  the  working  population  of  Paris  have  been  studiously,  si- 
lently, consecutively  educated  in  a  distinct  scheme  of  government, 
a  distinct  scheme  of  morality  ;  and  the  bottom  has  broken  up  ;  and 
this  mighty  revolution  has  taken  place — this  terrible  war  in  Paris 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  certain  great  definite  ends. 

This  throws  new  light  upon  the  movement,  and  gives  it  far  more 
importance.  It  is  not  a  squabble  of  wild  beasts  for  food.  They 
attributed  all  their  unhappiness  not  simply  to  government,  as  we 
learn,  but  to  society.  And  they  assume  that  men  have  not  found 
out  the  best  relations  by  which  man  shall  be  laced  to  man.  And 
they  are  undertaking,  now,  to  reconstruct  society,  increasing  the 
amount  of  individual  liberty.  They  seem  to  hold  that  there  may 
be  absolute  individual  liberty.  Nor  are  they  altogether  alone  in 
this  dream.     Other  nations  have  sought  the  same  thing. 

It  is  an  insurrection,  then,  not  more  against  political  government 
th§in  against  social  organization ;  and  it  is  proposed  to  make  an  ex- 
periment on  a  magnificent  scale  of  the  reconstruction  of  men's  re- 
lations to  each  other,  and  of  those  ideas  which  have  been  slowly 
accreted  through  the  experience  of  ages.  And  all  the  maxims  and 
social  laws  that  have  gradually  accumulated  by  the  trials  of  men  in 
every  possible  conjunction  and  circumstance,  through  thousands  oi 
years,  are  to  be  overturned.  A  new  theory  is  to  be  set  in  motion 
by  these  men. 

It  is  only  just  to  say  that  in  seeking  these  ends  this  under-class 
of  Paris  have  evinced  an  energy,  a  patience,  an  indifference  to  per- 
sonal suffering,  a  perfect  willingness  to  die  for  what  they  believe, 
yea,  and  an  eager  refusal  to  live,  which,  if  they  had  developed  them 
in  a  truly  just  cause,  would  have  been  pre-eminently  heroic.  We 
look  upon  these  terrific  scenes  in  Paris,  and  see  that  if  they  were 
enacted  for  a  righteous  purpose,  the  men  who  are  engaged  in  them 
mio-ht  be  added  to  the  calendar  of  men  who  have  not  counted  their 
lives  dear  unto  them,  so  that  they  might  achieve  a  higher  develop- 
ment and  a  nobler  liberty. 

I  do  not  mean  in  the  slightest  degree  to  extenuate  the  reckless 
cruelty  which  has  taken  place.  I  deem  it  to  be  atrocious,  and  with- 
out excuse.  But  if  these  men  inflicted  suffering  on  others,  they  took 
it  themselves.  If  they  hurled  death  upon  hundreds  and  thousands, 
they  opened  their  own  breasts  to  the  same  death.  They  acted  in  a 
bad  cause  as  good  men  would  fain  act  in  a  good  cause.    And  it  is 


TEE  LESSON  FROM  FAEIS.  239 

this  that  makes  it  all  the  more  dangerous — for  I  think  we  have  not 
seen  the  end  of  this  uprising. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  in  this  programme  which  one  who  knows 
them  well  has  published,  that  the  nobility  and  the  great  middle  class, 
according  to  this  new  theory,  have  had  their  time  of  government. 
That  is,  society  has  been  molded  upon  the  monarchic  plan,  upon  the 
aristocratic  idea,  upon  the  autocratic  notion,  upon  the  oligarchic 
foundation;  and  it  has  been  molded  to  suit  capitalists — the  great 
prosperous  middle  class.  And  now,  there  is  to  be  a  government 
which  shall  be  shaped  to  suit  the  bottom  of  society — the  great  work-j 
ing-class.  And  they  declare  (it  is  declared  for  them,  at  any  rate) 
that  only  those  who  belong  to  this  class  are  to  be  considered  worthy] 
of  political  status  and  power.  Instead  of  the  whole  of  society  or- 
ganizing by  class-interests,  and  making  one  government  of  the  whole 
people,  there  is  now  to  be  a  new  experiment.  As  the  top  of  society 
has  organized  and  failed,  and  the  middle  of  society  has  organized  and 
failed,  the  bottom  of  society  is  going  to  organize — and  it  will  fail, 
too. 

The  contrast  between  the  gayety  of  Paris  and  this  sullen  under- 
class that  has  been  educating  itself  and  watching  from  beneath, 
forces  itself  upon  every  imaginative  mind.  While  the  upper-class 
sung  and  danced,  and  wearied  the  hours  burdened  with  pleasure, 
right  beneath  them,  and  mingled,  it  may  be,  with  them,  Avere  these 
sullen-eyed  men  that  had  their  purposes,  and  only  waited  for  the 
time  of  their  execution. 

I  have  seen,  in  the  thicket,  birds  flitting  from  branch  to  branch, 
while  crouched  beneath,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  pounce  upon 
them,  lay  the  cat.  As  they  drew  near,  he  gathered  himself  up  for  a 
spring ;  and  as  they  flew  further  away,  he  sank  back  into  a  state  of 
repose ;  but  he  still  waited  for  a  chance  to  secure  his  prey.  And 
underneath  all  this  gayety  lay  these  men,  like  a  tiger  watching  and 
crouching  for  his  victim,  waiting  to  spring  upon  the  pleasure-seekers 
of  Paris. 

What  a  contrast  is  there,  too,  in  the  imagination  of  those  who 
have  gone  for  business  ends  to  Paris,  and  have  seen  the  product,  but 
not  the  producers  !  The  merchant  has  seen  their  wares  that  filled 
the  world  with  admiration ;  and  he  has  brought  home  their  silks, 
their  ribbons,  their  pictures,  their  silver  and  gold  ornaments,  their 
varied  machines,  their  ten  thousand  instruments  of  luxury,  Pom- 
peiian  in  splendor ;  and  yet  he  has  not  gone  back  into  the  shop  to 
feel  the  pulse  that  had  lava  in  it.  He  has  seen  the  wealth  and  the 
beauty  of  mechanic  art,  but  of  the  thoughtsand  purposes  of  the 
mechanician  how  little  has  he  known  1 


240  THE  LESSON  FBOM  FABIS. 

A  man  may  walk  througla  a  great  city,  and  take  its  length  and 
breadth,  and  gauge  it  in  various  ways,  and  go  away  from  it  knowing 
nothing  of  the  real  power  and  strength  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments in  it.  / 

Now,  in  every  considerable  city  in  France,  it  is  to  be  believed, 
these  views  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  prevail.  The  working  people 
of  the  manufacturing  cities  in  France  are  substantially  in  sympathy 
with  the  Communists  of  Paris.  This  is  not,  therefore,  a  boil  break- 
ing out  in  one  place.  It  is  a  puff  from  a  volcano ;  but  all  around 
the  mountain  there  are  crevices  through  which  the  same  sulphurous 
odor  is  emitted,  showing  that  the  whole  mountain  stands  upon  liquid 
fire.  Without  a  doubt,  there  is  a  leaven  among  the  working  men 
of  Europe  of  the  same  kind.  Difference  of  race-stock,  and  differ- 
ence of  education,  will  make  material  modifications ;  and  I  apj^rehend 
that  there  never  can  be  Communism  in  Germany  as  it  exists  in 
France.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Germanic  stock  can  be  run  away 
with  as  the  old  Romanic  stock  can.  Where  the  old  Romanic  blood  is 
predominant,  there  are  paroxysms,  and  spasms,  and  revolutions,  and 
absolute  fealty  to  leaders,  whether  they  be  cruel  or  humane.  The 
Germanic  stock  is  naturally  self-restraining.  Individual  liberty 
knows,  with  it,  how  to  cohere,  and  how  to  act  with  moderation  and 
prudence.  And  I  do  not  greatly  dread  the  spread  of  Communism. 
But  it  is  proper  to  say  that  there  is  a  leaven  of  this  theory,  and 
that  unless  kindly  influences  are  brought  to  bear  upon  it,  all  Europe 
will,  sooner  or  later,  be  in  alliance  with  such  ideas  and  tendencies. 

If  you  look  at  the  purpose  of  the  working  men  of  France,  you 
will  find  that  they  are  almost  universally  without  religious  faith.  It 
is  not  to  me  so  very  important  that  men  should  belong  in  this  church 
or  that  church,  in  this  creed  or  that  creed  (although  I  have  a  pro- 
found conviction  that  it  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  what  creed 
a  man  believes  in) ;  but  that  men  should  be  without  religious  inspi- 
rations of  any  kind  is  simply  shocking.  It  remits  them  again  to  the 
catalogue  of  animals.  It  takes  from  them  that  which  has  been  pro- 
ductive of  almost  every  single  element  of  progress  in  human  life.  If 
you  annihilate  the  faith  of  the  future ;  if  you  destroy  the  belief  of  a 
superintending  Providence ;  if  you  destroy  all  faith  in  a  personal 
God ;  if  you  sweep  the  horizon  with  your  compass,  and  say,  "  That 
is  the  only  eternity  which  men  have ;"  if  within  this  narrow  circle, 
men  are  to  live  for  the  greatest  amount  of  physical  enjoyment,  spir- 
ituality being  disowned,  then  you  have  but  a  cage  of  unclean  beasts. 
And  I  do  not  believe  it  is  possible  to  rear  up  a  system  of  industry — 
certainly  not  a  nation  of  households — still  less  the  fair  fabric  of  a 
powerful  and  organized  people — where  there  is  no  radically  religious 


THE  LESSON  FEOM  PAEIS.  241 

control;  where  there  is  no  inspiration  of  humanity;  wliere  there  is 
no  sense  of  brotherhood,  except  that  which  is  begotten  of  pure  in- 
terest. 

It  is  materialistic ;  that  is  to  say,  it  casts  out  of  its  faith  and  be- 
lief all  spiritual  things,  and  all  the  great  invisible  world  beyond, 
where  men  are  to  be  held  accountable  for  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body, 

Tliat  Communistic  faith  which  has  made  this  contest,  and  which 
is  to  be  heard  from  again  and  again  in  the  history  of  Europe,  is  rev- 
olutionary in  its  nature — radically  revolutionary.  It  proposes  not 
to  make  anything  better,  not  to  modify  anything,  not  to  stimulate 
new  growths  and  new  developments — nothing  of  the  kind.  It  does 
not  mean  progress.  It  means  revolution.  It  means  absolute  recon- 
struction from  the  foundation.  And  as  soon  as  it  can  be  done,  force 
will  be  applied  to  carry  out  these  philosojihical  notions.  It  is  or- 
ganized, and  organizing.  It  is  no  longer  a  nameless  rush.  It  has 
patience  in  it.  It  has  learned  to  wait.  It  has  also  learned  to  act.  It 
has  learned  to  act  by  combination.  And  it  is  imparting  its  ideas  to 
other  cities  and  other  nations. 

The  organization  which  is  going  on  at  the  base  of  society  among 
men  who  substantially  sympathize,  whether  through  ignorance  or 
through  narrowness  of  their  circumstances,  or  their  oppression  as 
laborers,  has  in  it  many  elements  of  education ;  but  unfortunately  it 
is  an  education  on  the  malign  side,  and  is  preparing  them  to  despise 
law  and  custom,  and  to  upturn  society  from  the  bottom.  And  Ave 
ouglit  not  to  be  ignorant  of  this,  nor  to  be  ignorant  of  its  great 
danger.    It  is  uniting  the  laboring  classes  of  the  world  in  sympathv. 

Already,  in  a  community  which  is  the  freest,  and  where  expan- 
sion is  indispensable,  and  where  labor  has  its  highest  remunerations, 
and  its  most  perfect  freedom,  the  laboring  classes  are  united,  and  are 
studiously  organizing  and  preparing  themselves  to  march  with  the 
great  baud  that  is  filling  the  world.  There  is  trouble  in  the  future 
for  Europe.  This  is  a  single  outbreak ;  but  it  is  a  kind  of  hideous 
John  Baptist  which  is  going  before  an  infernal  Messiah.  It  is  show- 
ing what  is  coming,  to  those  that  have  an  ear  to  hear.  It  may  be 
avoided  if  timely  heed  be  taken  ;  if  political  power  be  distributed ;  if 
better  ideas  are  inculcated  with  the  same  zeal  and  assiduity  with 
which  evil  ideas  have  been  ;  and  if  religion  shall  no  longer  be  repre- 
sented as  a  gorging  institution  of  power  in  alliance  with  the  State 
and  no  longer  as  a  part  of  the  instruments  by  which  the  poor  are 
made  poorer,  and  beaten  down.  If  religion  shall  come  as  a  benign 
spirit,  and  distill  like  dew  upon  the  grass  and  the  flowers,  this  mis- 
chief may  be  anticipated  and  prevented ;  but  unless  there  be  some 


242  TEE  LESSON  FBOM  PARIS. 

timely  apprehension  of  it,  Europe  is  destined  to  a  series  of  shocks  of 
which  this  is  but  the  avant  courier. 

The  question  now  naturally  comes  home,  To  what  extent  are  we, 
on  this  side,  In  danger  of  similar  insurrections  ?  If  one  should  take 
the  account  that  is  given  of  New  York  (and  perhaps  it  is  not  much 
exaggerated)  ;  if  one  consider  what  a  receptacle  it  is  of  nationali- 
ties ;  if  one  considers  how  vast  is  the  number  of  those  who  do  not 
speak  our  language,  and  cannot  therefore  be  in  affinity  with  Ameri- 
can ideas ;  if  one  considers  what  iise  has  been  made  of  this  great 
underlying  population ;  if  one  consider  what  corruption  is  attrib- 
uted to  it,  or  to  those  that  manage  it ;  if  one  call  to  mind  the  vio- 
lations of  public  safety  which  have  taken  place,  and  the  various  cor- 
ruptions which  have  been  proclaimed,  he  will  be  apt  to  suppose  that 
we  are  in  imminent  danger,  and  that  we,  too,  may  have  a  Paris,  if 
not  from  our  own  population,  from  that  which  has  been  grafted  upon 
us,  but  has  not  had  time  to  grow  to  the  parent  stock. 

I  apprehend,  however,  in  the  first  place,  that  our  dangers  in  this 
country  lie  not  in  the  direction  of  the  lower  classes,  primarily.  We 
must  work  a  change  before  they  will  be  organized  in  America  in 
such  a  way  as  to  be  dangeroiis  to  the  State.  But  there  is  danger  of 
a  wide  and  rapid  separation  of  the  classes  in  society.  Since  we  have 
no  classes  established  by  law,  and  demarked  by  fixed  lines  on  one 
side  or  the  other,  and  since  there  can  be  no  classes  except  those 
which  voluntarily  are  formed  in  the  struggles  of  men  for  strength 
and  wealth,  it  may  be  supposed  that  there  is  no  special  danger  here ; 
but  there  is  danger.  It  is  always  dangerous  to  have  difierent  parts 
of  the  population  antagonistic  to  each  other.  It  is  dangerous  that 
there  should  be  a  large  upper  class  full  of  riches,  full  of  pleasure,  and 
full  of  leisure,  and  a  large  under  class  who  believe  themselves  to  be 
as  good  and  as  deserving,  but  who  are  empty  of  leisure,  empty  of 
wealth,  and  empty,  for  the  most  part,  of  all  but  physical  pleasure. 
And  if  this  country  stratifies  itself,  and  those  influences  prevail  which 
separate  the  rich  from  the  poor,  the  upper  from  the  lower  sections, 
in  society,  we  shall  come  into  very  imminent  perils,  and  very  deadly 
ones.  The  extraordinary  organization  which  is  going  on  in  capital, 
by  which  it  controls,  or  tends  to  control,  the  legislation  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  whole  commerce  of  the  country,  directly  or  indirectly, 
as  they  are  related  to  the  political  and  other  interests  of  the  nation — 
this  organization  by  which  a  new  power  is  springing  up,  and  de- 
veloping itself  in  the  hands  of  a  plutocracy,  of  an  aristocracy  of 
wealth — this  is  an  element  of  danger,  and  of  imminent  danger.  It 
is  going  on  in  our  sight,  and  we  see  the  beginnings  of  it,  though 
we  do  not  see  the  ends.     It  is  tending  to  produce  divisions  and 


IHE  LESSON  FROM  PABIS.  243 

separations  in  our  society  which  the  strength  and  elasticity  of  our 
political  system  will  scarcely  be  able  to  endure.  Unless  we  are 
aroused,  and  timely  aroused,  to  a  consideration  of  this  great  increase 
of  accreted  power,  and  unless  we  put  barriers  in  its  way,  either  of 
legislation  or  of  public  sentiment,  and  stop  its  progress  before  it  be 
swollen  to  despotic  proportions,  we  shall  prepare  for  our  children 
and  our  children's  children  mischiefs  which  the  imagination  does  not 
like  to  foresee,  nor  to  measure. 

On  the  other  hand  (not  to  draw  the  picture  altogether  on  the 
dark  side),  we  have  a  religion  in  this  country  which  is  free  from  the 
State,  which  belongs  to  the  people  themselves,  and  which  is  not 
represented  by  vast  and  powerful  corruptions  like  that  of  Rome. 
We  have  a  religion  which  springs  up  by  the  side  of  the  cradle,  and 
finds  its  sweetest  sanctuaiy  in  homes  where  hymns  and  chants  are 
sung  by  mothers  and  little  children.  We  have  in  this  land  no  proud 
hierarchy,  with  historic  embellishments,  knitted  together — a  class 
made  sacred,  and  standing  apart  from  their  felloAvs  in  society.  Our 
preachers  are  not  priests,  but  ministers.  They  are  brethren  among 
brethren.  Although  there  be  interlaced,  here  and  there,  another 
order ;  although,  here  and  there,  there  be  progress  made  by  hier- 
archical religions,  in  the  main,  the  power  of  religion  in  America 
proceeds  from  those  who  believe  in  the  democratic  element  of  relig- 
ious life. 

So  we  have  much  to  be  thankful  for ;  and  much  danger  is  warded 
off  from  us,  in  that  our  people  are  everywhere  kindly  disposed  to 
religion.  The  working  men  in  Europe  have  felt  so  many  burdens, 
so  much  has  been  wrung  out  of  them,  they  have  been  so  shut  up, 
and  they  have  been  so  battered  and  beaten  by  what  is  called  rellffion 
by  the  churches,  that  I  scarcely  wonder  that  they  cherish  malign 
feelings,  feelings  of  animosity,  against  it. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  that  the  palaces  are  burned ;  but  it  does  not 
transcend  the  imagination,  how  men  should  have  such  spite  as  they 
manifested  in  the  burning  of  them.  The  boy  prefigures  the  man. 
Who  ever,  driving  the  cows  a-field,  barefooted,  and  making  haste, 
and  striking  his  foot  against  a  stone,  has  not,  while  suffering  from 
the  stinging  pain  caused  by  the  blow,  beaten  the  stone,  that  was  not 
at  fault,  because  it  hurt  him  ?  And  when  men,  running  against 
the  stone  bulwarks  of  churches  and  cathedrals,  out  of  which  have 
come  sharp  pangs  and  pains,  and  against  palaces,  which,  to  them, 
have  no  poetic  associations,  and  out  of  which  have  come  their  op- 
pressors, and  that  are  looked  upon  as  horrid  and  hideous  places 
which  have  been  the  dens  of  those  oppressors — as  unclean  places 
where  devouring  broods  of  despots  have  swallowed  up  their  liberties 


244  THE  LESSON  FBOM  FAEIS. 

— I  do  not  wonder  that  there  should  be  the  feeling,  "  Put  the  torch 
to  everything  that  tends  toward  the  old  tyrany !"  It  was  not  justi- 
fied; but  it  may  thus  be  explained.  I  do  not  marvel  that  these  fan- 
atical men  should  have  believed  that  all  government  was  oppresive 
and  wrong.  And  if  the  working  men  of  Paris  firmly  believed  that 
they  held  in  their  hand  a  pattern  by  which  happiness  could  be  given 
to  the  world,  I  do  not  marvel  that  they  should  have  said,  "  Better 
wipe  out  Paris  as  a  city,  and  build  as  in  a  wilderness,  than  that  it 
should  stand  fortified,  and  continue  to  oppress  men,  and  work  mis- 
chief on  them."  It  does  not  justify  them,  but  it  explains  how  their 
fanaticism  has  turned  them  against  their  own  fair  city. 

There  is  not  a  historic  precedent,  there  is  not  a  form  of  law,  there 
is  not  a  process  of  manhood,  that  could  live  an  hour  in  this  country, 
if  men  here  had  the  associations  which  they  have  in  France,  or  in 
Europe,  in  connection  with  the  Church,  or  with  many  parts  of  the 
State.  The  fa-ir  fabric  of  this  government  was  built  in  the  wildei'- 
ness.  We  bemoan  our  fathers'  trials.  We  sympathize  with  them 
because  they  had  plain  food,  and  lived  almost  shelterless  in  the 
dreary  winter.  But  ah  !  we  rejoice  that  they  were  in  the  wilder- 
ness where  no  man  chose  to  follow  them,  and  where  they  could  rear 
the  pillars  of  government  on  foundations  of  natural  justice — as  they 
did.  It  was  their  blessing.  It  was  the  great  blessing  that  God  gave 
to  them.  The  ocean  was  the  barrier  of  their  protection,  and  their 
insignificance  was  the  reason  why  men  let  them  alone  till  they  had 
so  builded  that  future  ages  might  not  take  down  what  they  had 
built.  And  all  our  laws  and  institutions  are  so  founded  upon  right 
principles,  that  they  savor  of  benevolence  and  justice  and  kindliness. 

The  religious  sentiment  in  this  country  is  the  sentiment,  not  of 
the  upper  or  the  middle  classes  alone,  but  as  much  of  the  lower. 
The  spirit,  the  inspiration,  of  faith,  belongs  to  our  people,  down  to 
the  very  bottom.  Woe  to  that  nation  whose  lower  class,  stripped 
of  every  thing  on  earth  by  men,  have  stripped  themselves  of  every 
thing  in  heaven,  and  have  no  God,  and  no  protector,  and  no  warm 
bosom  of  faith,  but  sit  in  the  chill  of  unbelief,  shivering  in  their  own 
unconscious  poverty. 

Then  our  population  is  not  compressed  as  is  the  population  in 
Europe.  Whatever  be  our  dangers,  we  shall  not  feel  them  for  some 
time  to  come.  The  troubles  that  overtake  men  there  cannot  be 
escaped  from.  Men  cannot  run  away.  And  so  they  stand  still,  and 
are  ground,  and  irked,  and  irritated.  Here  a  certain  degree  of 
inconvenience  merely  drives  people  away  from  one  place  to  another. 
They  go  out  of  one  city  into  another.  They  go  out  of  the  city  into 
the  town,  and  out  of  the  town  into  the  country. 


TEE  LESSON  FEOM  PARIS.  245 

Cheap  laiitl,  that  will  not  fail  for  generations  to  come,  is  the 
natural  remedy  for  many  of  those  faults  which  come  by  compression ; 
so  that  we  need  not  look  for  any  immediate  irritation  and  outbreak 
such  as  visits  Europe. 

The  education,  too,  that  our  people  undergo  in  the  matter  of  po- 
litical equality,  has  in  it  a  surviving  power,  and  is  doing  a  work  of 
preservation.  But,  after  all,  if  we  are  to  maintain  our  country  in 
safety,  we  must  still  keep  open  all  the  channels  of  intelligence  in 
this  land.  We  are  growing ;  and  it  is  not  a  matter  merely  for  pride, 
it  certainly  is  a  matter  of  congratulation  and  boasting,  that  we  are 
becoming  so  strong  in  riches,  and  so  vast  in  territory,  and  so  mighty 
in  population.  But  there  are  dangers  which  come  with  these  incre- 
ments. We  must  keep  open,  therefoi-e,  every  channel  of  intelligence. 
An  ignorant  man  is  a  dangerous  man.  It  is  in  the  dark,  or  unswept, 
or  unwashed  places  that  vermin  breed.  Where  the  broom  and  the 
sun  come,  there  come  not  vermin.  Where  knowledge  shines,  there 
fanaticism  is  not  apt  to  go.  There  growth  is  moderated,  and  be- 
comes gradual.     There  experiments  are  few  and  cautious  and  wise. 

For  us,  the  newspaper  is  a  greater  treasure  than  uncounted  mil- 
lions of  gold.  If  a  man  be  worth  his  millions,  he  is  all  the  more 
dangerous  if  he  be  ignorant.  No  nation  can  bear  wealth  that  is  not 
intelligent  first.  The  newspaper  is  every  year  increasing  in  circu- 
lation ;  and  as  it  increases  in  circulation,  it  increases  in  imjjortance, 
not  only  as  a  moral  power,  but  as  a  political  power  allied  to  moral- 
ity, to  a  degree  that  those  who  conduct  it  do  not  suspect.  News- 
papers are  to  the  body  politic  what  arteries  are  to  the  human 
body,  their  function  being  to  carry  blood  and  sustenance  and  repair 
to  every  part  of  the  body.  Multiply  them,  and  give  them  wider 
circulation.  Would  to  God  that  those  who  conduct  them  might 
realize  the  full  measure  of  their  responsibility.  Would  to  God  that 
they  had  a  true  sense  of  patriotism,  and  a  genuine  love  of  intelligence 
and  morality. 

Then,  next,  the  common  school  must  be  studiously  employed  to 
build  up,  not  simply  light  and  knowledge,  but  that  sympathy  be- 
tween men  which  comes  from  their  mingling  together  in  the  same 
sphere  of  life.  I  look  upon  this  indirect  effect  of  the  common 
school  as  one  of  its  blessings — particularly  in  this  land,  where  so 
many  classes  are  to  be  comminuted  and  mixed.  The  common 
school  brings  together  the  children  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  and 
lays  the  foundation  for  kindly  interest  and  sympathy  between  them 
which  they  will  never  outgrow  as  long  as  they  live. 

I  remember  that  the  year  I  came  to  Brooklyn,  I  found  in  one  of 
the  churches  a  man  who  had  been  a  boy  alongside  of  me  in  old 


246  THE  LESSON  FROM  PARIS. 

Litchfield.  We  had  gone  to  the  unpainted  brown  school-house  to- 
gether. We  had  secretly  whittled  the  benches  together.  We  had 
together  caught  flies  instead  of  ideas.  We  had  played  together. 
We  had  scuffled  together.  We  had  whijjped  each  other — taking 
turns  from  day  to  day.  And  so  we  had  grown  up,  he  the  child  of 
an  almost  outcast  shoemaker,  and  I  the  child  of — Dr.  Beecher !  I 
had  not  met  him  for  thirty  years  ;  but  no  sooner  did  he  mention  his 
name  than  my  blood  tingled,  and  we  grasped  hands  as  if  we  had 
had  the  same  mother.  It  was  because  we  had  sat  on  the  same  bench 
in  the  common  school,  and  had  played  together,  when  boys,  although 
our  parentage  and  '^ur  conditions  in  society  were  far  apart — things 
which  boys  know  but  little  about.  And  I  think  we  cannot' over-esti- 
mate that  sympathy  which  comes  from  the  mingling  of  the  high 
and  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  strong  and  the  weak.  The 
common  school  lays  the  foundation  among  boys  for  a  knowledge  of 
each  other,  a  confidence  in  each  other,  and  a  sympathy  with  each 
other,  which  .will  not  wear  out  during  their  whole  life. 

I  believe  in  colleges,  and  academies,  and  select  and  high  schools ; 
but  I  would  rather  see  all  of  them  perish  than  to  see  the  common 
school  perish.  I  would  fain  have  the  common  school  made  so 
strong  and  so  good,  so  large  and  so  luminous,  so  full  of  the  marrow 
of  good  things,  that  they  who  dwell  in  the  neighborhood  of  it,  no 
matter  how  rich  they  may  be,  cannot  afford  to  send  their  children 
anywhere  else.  Make  that  which  you  do  for  the  common  people 
better  than  that  which  can  be  done  by  select  classes  in  the  com- 
munity for  themselves.  They  are  doing  this  in  Massachusetts,  and 
especially  in  Boston,  Make  such  provision  for  the  education  of  the 
commonest  common  people,  that  the  richest  uncommon  people  will 
come  suppliantly  and  ask  for  their  children  the  privilege  of  partici- 
■oating  in  the  advantages  of  the  common  school.  Do  not  destroy  the 
common  school.  And  keep  it  common.  Bring  everybody  to  it,  and 
let  them  there  learn  each  other's  brotherhood.  And  thus,  society, 
beginning  and  passing  through  the  common  school,  will  form  sym- 
pathetic associations  which  will  go  on  unfolding  themselves  after- 
ward, and  which  will  no  more  be  forgotten  by  men  than  the  wide- 
spreading  branches  of  a  tree  forget  the  roots  from  which  all  their 
magnificence  draws  sustenance. 

We  must  also  renew  and  increase  in  our  land  respect  for  law  ; 
and  therefore  law-making  must  be  made  respectable.  We  must 
teach  our  children  to  have  more  regard  for  civil  administration ; 
and  therefore  we  must  see  to  it  that  civil  administration  is  worthy 
of  the  regard  of  honest  children  and  youth.  We  must  bring  a 
noble  spirit  of  heroism  to  bear  upon  the  administration  of  public 


THE  LESSON  FROM  PABIS.  217 

affairs,  and  see  to  it  that  the  commonwealth  sliall  not  come  to  shame 
by  reason  of  the  infidelity  of  its  various  members. 

We  must  give  force  to  every  religious  influence,  also.  We  must 
have  a  religion  which  hispires  self-restraint ;  which  widens  the 
horizon  by  adding  to  the  spiritual  and  the  beautiful  of  the  present ; 
which  inspires  a  feeling  of  responsibility  to  God,  and  of  true 
brotherhood  among  men.  It  is  quite  an  insignificant  question, 
.whether  this  or  that  creed  be  right.  It  is  quite  insignificant,  whether 
men  are  descended  in  an  authorized  line,  or  whether  they  have 
liberty  to  develop  themselves  without  historic  lineage.  These  things 
have  some  interest  ;  but  that  which  concerns  every  man  in  the 
religion  of  the  country,  is,  that  it  shall  inspire  self-restraint,  Avhat- 
ever  be  its  creed.  It  should  be  a  religion  that  makes  men  spiritual, 
and  inculcates  in  them  a  wholesome  belief  in  the  life  to  come,  and 
controls  the  life  that  noAV  is.  It  should  be  a  religion  that  inspires  a 
feeling  of  responsibility  to  God.  Nothing  holds  a  man  to  such  care 
of  himself,  nothing  holds  a  man  to  such  probity,  and  notliing,  there- 
fore, is  such  a  guarantee  of  his  safety,  as  the  feeling,  "  I  must  give 
account  of  myself  before  God."  And  whatever  may  be  your  partic- 
ular faith,  whatever  be  your  method  and  polity,  see  to  it  that  the 
relio"ion  which  breathes  from  your  church  shall  inspire  self-restraint, 
belief  in  immortality,  responsibility  to  God,  and  brotherhood  among 
men. 

Beware  of  religious  faiths  that  separate  men.  Beware  of  re- 
ligious faiths  that  put  forth  a  hand  bearing  a  flail,  and  go  into  life 
beating  down,  beating  down,  and  beating  down  each  other.  Look 
for  those  religious  administrations  that  di'aw  men  together  ;  that 
inspire  good  will  ;  that  teach  patience  and  gentleness  and  forbear- 
ance. Look  for  sweetness,  and  not  for  bitterness.  Look  for  a  for- 
giving spirit,  and  not  for  unrelentingness.  Demand  and  secure,  in 
the  religion  of  the  coming  day,  in  the  church  that  is  to  be,  all  that 
there  is  of  mercifulness  without  impugning  the  strictness  of  justice; 
all  that  there  is  of  gentleness  without  taking  from  the  strength  of 
the  bones  of  responsibility. 

So,  if  we  give  liberty  to  the  whole  people ;  if  we  educate  them, 
and  inspire  them  with  a  true  intelligence  ;  and  if,  above  all,  we 
croAvn  their  material  acquisitions,  and  all  that  education  gives  them, 
with  a  sincere  love  for  God  and  love  for  man,  we  shall  liave  a 
people  that  is  competent  to  grow,  making  wood  such  that  the  tree 
will  be  able  to  bear  the  beating  upon  it  of  the  elements,  and  that 
the  winter  and  summer  storms  which  rock  it  shall  make  it  elastic, 
but  shall  not  break  it. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  not  forget  those  who  are  in  bonds  as  bound 


,248  THE  LESSON  FBOM  FABI8. 

with  them.  Let  us  not  read  with  eager  and  credulous  eyes,  and 
with  morbid  enjoyment,  of  the  horrors  that  are  taking  place  in 
other  lands.  What  mothers'  hearts  are  sacked  !  The  burning  of 
the  Tuileries  is  sad  ;  but  the  suffering  of  one  desolated  heart  is 
sadder.  The  murder  of  multitudes  of  misguided  men  is  horrible  ; 
but  not  the  dead  should  command  our  pity.  Those  that  live  de- 
mand our  compassion.  Mourn  for  them.  Think  of  the  little  children 
that  are  made  orphans.  Think  of  the  girls  that  have  no  protectors. 
Think  of  the  poverty  of  those  who  are  left  to  suffer  without  work 
and  without  hope.  Pity  the  Government.  Pity  the  poor  persons. 
And  pity,  too,  the  ignorant,  the  misguided,  the  mistaken,  who  have 
been  inflamed  to  cruelty,  following  an  ignis  fatuus.  Still  they  are 
our  brothers,  and  their  mistakes,  and  all  the  hideous  cruelties  to 
which  their  mistakes  have  led  them,  should  not  alienate  our  thoughts 
of  them.     Pray  for  them. 

Pray  for  all  men,  and  learn  to  feel  that  wherever  a  human  heart 
suffers,  even  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  round  world,  there  vou 
have  an  ei-rand,  and  there  your  heart  should  bear  you  in  prayer  to 
God,  saying, 

"  Thy  kingdom  come.  Tby  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven." 


THE  LESSON  FROM  PARIS.  249 

PIIAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  humble  ourselves  before  thpe,  our  Father,  for  all  thy  greatness  and 
all  thy  goodness,  which  make  us  feel  how  unworthy  we  are  of  such  parent- 
age. It  is  not  our  fault  that  we  are  smaller  than  thou,  nor  that  we  are  not 
greater  than  the  design  of  thy  creation  hath  made  us ;  but  it  is  in  the  use  of 
the  powers  which  thou  hast  given  us  that  we  perceive  how  far  short  we 
have  come  of  knowledge.  We  have  not  that  which  we  might  have  had,  nor 
have  we  walked  in  the  light  of  it,  nor  restrained  ourselves  according  to  the 
law  that  is  in  our  inner  parts.  We  have  not  known  the  way  of  peace,  to 
pursue  it.  AVe  have  gone  aside  to  do  evil.  Again  and  again,  and  often, 
when  we  knew  it  to  be  evil  by  the  sharp-piercing  penalties  which  it  brought, 
we  have  still  been  drawu  to  it,  and  have  had  occasion  to  mourn  over  our 
own  folly  and  our  own  guilt,  our  blindness  and  our  infatuation.  But 
we  rejoice,  whili;  we  make  mention  of  our  own  estate,  that  we  are  speakin"- 
to  One  who  is  full  of  condescension,  full  of  compassion,  abhorring  evil,  but 
not  the  evil-doer;  seeking  to  rescue,  but  not  to  condemn;  seeking  to  brino- 
near  and  to  reform,but  not  to  cast  off  and  to  refuse.  We  rejoice  in  thy 
graciousness.  Our  hope  is  in  thee.  For  we  are  not  ourselves  strong  to  do 
good.  And  though  we  have  aspirations  many,  how  much  do  they  mock 
and  rebuke  us,  rather  than  draw  us  upward !  How  much  better  caii  we  see 
the  right  than  perform  it!  How  much  do  we  behold  the  ideal  life!  and  yet 
how  little  do  we  enter  into  it!  By  the  grace  of  God  we  must  be  forgiven 
for  the  past,  strengthened  in  the  present,  and  helped  in  the  future.  And 
to  thy  strength  we  bow  ourselves,  acknowledging  thy  goodness  and  thy 
sparing  mercy.  And  we  commend  ourselves  still  to  that  same  tender  care 
and  that  same  divine  love,  piaying  that  thou  wilt  do  exct  tding  abundantly 
more  for  us  than  we  can  ask  or  think.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  us 
the  blessing  of  those  hopes  which  bring  us  near  to  thee,  and  wed  us  to  thy 
government. 

And  grant  that  these  same  hopes  may  spring  up  intelligently  in  the 
hearts  of  all  this  great  people.  We  pray  that  this  nation  may  be  a  God- 
fearing nation ;  that  thy  laws  may  not  be  burst  asunder,  and  thy  cords  cast 
away  from  us.  May  we  rather  give  heed  to  thy  laws,  and  walk  in  them, 
that  we  may  have  the  favor  of  God,  and  that  prosperity  which  that  favor 
always  brings.  Pity  those  that  are  weak,  and  that  have  been  despoiled. 
Pity  those  (hat  are  ignorant.  Having  eyes,  they  see  not;  and  ears,  they 
hear  not;  and  a  heart,  they  do  not  understand.  And  yet,  minister  unto 
them.  Stir  up  thy  people,  we  beseech  of  thee.  Become  their  Instructor 
and  their  Saviour.  And  we  pray  that  all  those  who  are  scattered  wide 
abroad  throughout  this  great  land,  and  are  gradually  growing  compactly 
into  national  life,  may  be  pervaded  by  a  true  religious  feeling  of  love  to 
each  other,  by  a  generous  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole,  and  by  an 
intelligent  judgment  of  duty. 

And  we  pray  that  the  prosperity  of  this  nation  may  not  ungird  it,  and 
lead  it  to  dissoluteness  of  life.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  it  may 
be  established  in  righteousness.  And  while  we  look  abroad  upon  nations 
that  are  drinking  blood  and  passing  away,  we  pray  that  we  may  not  forget 
our  own  suffering,  or  the  dark  days  and  trying  hours  which  we  have  known 
and  that  we  may  not  arrogate  to  ourselves  such  superiority  over  others, 
because  for  this  hour  we  are  secure  and  they  are  tempest-tossed  and  not 
comforted. 

We  pray  for  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Pity  and  spare  those  which 
thou  art  chastising,  and  bind  up  where  thou  hast  bruised,  and  establish 
again  the  goings  of  those  who  have  been  cast  down. 


250  TEE  LESSON  FllOM  PABI8. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  religion  may  break  forth 
from  all  the  forms  that  have  encased  It,  and  from  all  that  has  tarnished  it 
or  sullied  its  loveliness,  and  that  it  may  become  the  portion  of  all  men,  that 
from  the  bosom  of  God  they  may  leain  justice,  and  temperance,  and  forbear- 
ance with  each  other,  and  kindness,  and  all  things  that  make  for  peace. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  !  that  thou  wilt  grant,  if  it  be  thy  righteous  will,  that 
progress  may  go  forward,  not  by  revolution,  but  by  reformation.  May 
statesmen  be  endowed  with  wisdom  from  on  high,  and  may  the  people  have 
patience  to  wait  for  the  growth  of  better  things,  and  not  rudely  snatch  at 
the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and  bring  down  upon  themselves 
condign  punishment. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  !  that  thou  wilt  turn  the  hearts  of  men  everywhere 
toward  each  other.  We  pray  that  rapine,  and  hatred,  and  all  forms  of  mis- 
chief which  men  inflict  upon  each  other  may  pass  away.  Come,  O  bright 
day  of  promise !  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  fill  the  earth  as  the  waters 
fill  the  sea. 

May  we  pray  from  day  to  day,  and  more  fervently  than  ever,  Tliy  Mng- 
dom  come.    Thy  rcUl  be  done  upon  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Wilt  thou  prepare  us  for  the  services  of  the  evening;  for  the  lessons  of 
instruction  to  which  we  may  be  drawn. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  the  spirit  of  the  Sabbath 
may  go  with  us  through  all  the  week.  Be  with  us  while  we  live.  And  grant, 
at  last,  that  when  we  are  called  to  the  solemn  hour  of  death,  we  may  ex- 
change worlds  joyfully,  and  go  singing  to  our  home.  And  to  the  Father, 
the  Sod,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praise  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  add  thy  blessing  to  the 
word  spoken.  Grant  that  we  may  from  thy  providence  draw  lessons  of 
knowledge  and  wisdom  to  guide  our  steps.  Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  to 
this  great  people,  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As  thou  didst  give  thy 
presence  to  our  fathers;  as  thou  didst  lead  them  to  wise  results ;  as  in  all 
times  of  peril  thou  hast  guided  our  necessities,  so  we  commend  to  thee  this 
land  again,  God  of  our  fathers,  praying  that  thou  wilt  be  the  God  of  their 
children.  And  while  we  hail,  and  accept  gladly,  with  sincere  hospitality, 
the  multitudes,  almost  countless,  that  are  rushing  hither  from  the  narrow 
circumstances  and  the  oppressions  of  foreign  lands.  Lord,  save  us,  we 
beseech  of  thee.  Grant  that  they  may  bring  to  us,  not  vices,  to  inoculate  us 
with.  May  we,  rather,  have  virtues  that  shall  be  able  to  sustain  them. 
Grant,  we'pray  thee,  that  we  may  mingle  kindly,  doing  each  other  good. 
And  may  their  children  and  our  children,  interlaced,  go  on  in  later  days, 
building  on  the  same  foundations,  gathering  fruit  from  the  same  tree  of 
liberty,  worshiping  with  the  same  faith,  and  believing  in  the  same  God. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  overrule  all  tendencies  to  excess,  to  luxury,  to 
self-indulgence.  And  wilt  thou  overrule  all  tendencies  toward  the  develop- 
ment of  unjust  power,  and  toward  the  oppression  of  men.  Purge  our  land. 
Purify  our  administrations.  And  grant  that  this  may  be  a  God-fearing 
land,  and  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  it,  and  that  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  beholding,  may  worship  thee,  and  draw  near  to  thee,  and  find  thee 
the  Friend  of  the  poor,  the  Deliverer  of  the  captive,  and  the  Builder-up  of 
those  who  are  laid  waste. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  all  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


.       XIII. 

Suspended  Moral  Convictions, 


Hear  our  cry,  Heavenly  Father ;  and  out  of  the  multitude  of  thy  tender 
mercies  both  listen  to  us  and  bless  us.  Revive  in  us  faith  and  hope ;  and  give 
us  the  courage,  or  love,  this  day,  to  draw  near  to  thee  out  from  all  our  In- 
firmities, and  from  our  sins,  and  from  all  doubt  and  unbelief  a  nd  fear,  that 
we  may  come  as  children  rejoicing  to  the  Father  of  joy,  and  that  we  may  be 
blessed  of  thee.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  our  meditation,^  our  fellowship, 
our  devotion,  and  the  offices  of  instruction,  may  all  be  divinely  inspired  and 
guided  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  thy  name,  and  to  our  soul's  welfare.  We 
ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

13. 


V 


SUSPENDED  MORAL  CONVICTIONS. 


"  Nevertheless,  among  the  chief  rulers  also  many  believed  on  him ;  but 
because  of  the  Pharisees  they  did  not  confess  him.  lest  they  should  be  put 
out  of  the  synagogue:  for  they  loved  the  praise  of  men  more  than  the 
praise  of  God."— John  xii.,  42,  43. 


The  scene  which    these  words  develop  took  place  amono-  the 
very  last  days  of  our  Master  upon  earth  before  his  crucifixion.     He 
had  finished  his  Galilean  ministry.     In  Galilee  he  spent  by  far  the 
largest  part  of  the  time  that  he  spent  upon  earth.     He  had  come 
down,  now,  to  Judsea,  and  to  Jerusalem,  to  fill  up  the  immortal  days 
of  passion ;  and  he  stood  on  the  very  eve  of  this  great  manifestation 
of  divine  love  and  divine  power.     No  one,  who  has  made  it  his  busi- 
ness to  look  closely  into  it,  will  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  deepening 
and  widening  of  the  teachings  of  the  Saviour  as  time  went  on. 
Whether  it  was  simply  that,  like  men,  he  was  growing  deeper  and 
wider  by  practice  and  years,  or  whether  it  was  designed  that  he 
should  emit  light  in  proportion  as  men  were  able  to  receive  it,  the 
fact  is,  unquestionably,  that  his   declarations  were  higher,  broader 
and  more  extraordinary,  every  week  of  the  last  six  months  of  his 
life.     They  began,  if  I  may  so  say,  in  the  hills  of  Galilee.     The 
river  Amazon  begins  in  the  mountains,  by  slender  streams,  many 
but  confluent ;  and  the  river  grows  until  the  breadth  of  it  at  its 
mouth  is  such  that  from  the  channel  one  cannot  see  the  shore  on 
either  side  ;  and  in  the  last  days  of  Christ  his  inspirations  outran 
moral  experience,  rising  higher  than  any  man  could  follow  them, 
and  sinking  deeper  than  that  any  plummet  of  human  thought  could 
sound  them.     The  very  mysticism  of  John's  Gospel  consists  in  this  : 
that  it  is  attempting  to  orb  to  us  thoughts  that  are  of  infinite  experi- 
ence, and  that  so  transcend  men's  higher  experiences  that  they  are 
impossible  to  us. 

Now,  there  were  many  among  the  Jews — the  common  people 

who  heard  Jesus  gladly,  we  know.  They  heard  him  because  they 
had  nothing  to  risk.  They  heard  him  because  he  accompanied  his  in- 
structions with  works  of  mercy  that  won  upon  their  sympathies  and 

Sunday  Morning,  May  28,  1871.    Lesson  :   John  XII.,  30-50.    Hymns  (Plymouth 

Collection)  :  Kos.  24,  514,  898. 


254  SUSPENDED  MOEAL  CONVICTIONS, 

hearts.  He  was  their  physician.  He  also  provided  largely  for  their 
wants.  He  carried,  from  first  to  last,  the  great  mass  of  the  sym- 
pathetic common  people  with  him.  And  there  was  no  period  in 
Christ's  teaching  and  life  in  which  there  were  not  a  select  part  of  the 
Pharisees  who  believed  in  him.  Some  few  were  willing  to  own  it, 
Imt  the  greater  part  were  not.  Toward  the  close  of  his  life,  as  he 
came  more  and  more  in  contact  with  the  higher  orders  of  the  Phari- 
sees that  same  experience  attended  him.  The  great  body  of  them, 
from  party  earnestness  as  well  as  personal  antipathies,  rejected 
Christ's  teachings  and  assumptions.  There  were  some  who  regarded 
them ;  but  they  were  such  men  as  Nicodemus,  and  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea,  and  others  like  them — just  men;  deep-hearted  men;  men  wont 
to  ponder  moral  questions  ;  men  that  had  soul-hunger ;  men  of  gen- 
uine religious  aspiration ;  men  that  could  not  if  they  would,  and 
that  would  not  if  they  could,  free  themselves  from  the  solemn  over- 
shadowing of  eternal  truths. 

While  the  great  multitude  of  the  Pharisees  rejected  Christ  ut- 
terly, they  vehemently  contested  him,  and  sought  his  destruction. 
There  were  here  and  there  many  men  that  believed.  And  the  ques- 
tion is,  Why  did  they  not  openly  espouse  his  cause  and  give  strength 
to  it  ?  We  have  been  accustomed  to  take  sides  with  Christ.  His 
cause  has  been  adopted  by  us,  and  we  are  almost  partisans  for  Chris- 
tianity. We  take  sides  against  everybody  who  took  sides  against 
Christ  in  the  old  times. 

In  one  sense  this  is  right.  In  another  sense  we  shall  not  touch 
the  bottom  of  things  unless  we  can  by  sympathy  and  dramatic  in- 
terpretation put  ourselves  among  those  that  stood  outside  of  the 
charmed  circle,  and  look  at  Christ  as  they  did,  and  reason  on  their 
conduct  from  what  we  know  of  the  great  motives  that  actuate  the 
average  of  human  conduct.  It  certainly  was  a  great  moral  weakness, 
to  use  the  mildest  term,  on  the  part  of  those  of  the  Pharisaic  body 
who  believed  in  Christ,  not  openly  to  avow  their  faith  in  him.  But 
we  must  not  suppose  that  thoy  were  so  very  bad,  measured  accord- 
ing to  our  estimate  of  good  or  bad  amoHg  men.  They  were  rulers 
of  the  synagogue  ;  and  they  were  the  "  chief  rulers,"  it  is  said. 
That  is,  they  were  men  that  stood  among  the  very  highest  of  the 
officers  of  the  synagogue.  The  Temple  could  exist  only  in  one 
place — namely,  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  Temple  never  provided  in- 
struction for  the  people,  but  simply  sacrificial  worship.  That  was 
its  solitary  function.  The  synagogue  provided  instruction,  but 
never  sacrifice.  Synagogues  existed  in  every  considerable  neighbor- 
hood ;  and  there  were  a  great  many  of  them  in  old  Jerusalem,  I 
suppose  the  synagogue  was  substantially  the  model  upon  which  the 


SUSPENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS.  255 

apostles  early  framed  the  Christian  church ;  and  I  suppose  that  the 
early  officers  of  the  Christian  church  occupied  substantially  the 
same  positions  and  performed  substantially  the  same  functions  which 
the  ajiostles  had  been  accustomed  to  in  their  synagogical  experi- 
ences. 

Our  Master  availed  himself  of  the  synagogues  every  Sabbath 
day.  He,  as  we  now  say,  attended  church  at  the  synagogue.  He 
became  a  teacher.  Frequently  intelligent  men  were  called  out  of 
the  audience  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  to  expound  them  ;  and  he 
often  performed  this  service  ;  and  thus  he  became  not  only  familiar 
with  the  usages  of  the  synagogue,  but  with  the  principal  characters 
of  the  synagogues  throughout  the  country.  These  rulers  were 
among  the  most  honored  men  of  that  time.  To  be  an  elder  or 
a  ruler  in  the  synagogue,  and  a  chief  one  at  that,  was  to  go  nearly 
as  high  as  an  ordinary  Jew  could  aspire  to  go  in  the  ranks  of  his 
own  countrymen. 

Now,  we  must  not  jud.;e  of  the  conduct  of  the  men  who 
occupied  that  official  relation  to  the  synagogue,  by  our  views  of 
Christ.  We  have  never  had  any  doubt  in  respect  to  his  divinity,  for 
the  most  part.  From  our  childhood  we  have  seen  him,  not  as  a  man 
of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  but  as  glorified.  A  halo 
hangs  in  our  imagination  round  about  his  head  when  we  think 
of  him ;  and  he  is  the  openly-declared,  and  by  ages  honored,  Christ. 
But  he  came  among  his  countrymen  born  in  the  most  inconspicuous 
circumstances,  trained  among  the  poorest  of  the  people,  and  without 
the  advantages-  of  education  which  belonged  to  the  higher  classes. 
He  came  in  ways  that  tended  to  shock  many  of  the  prejudices  of  his 
own  people.  He  was  an  extremist,  judging  purely  by  external 
measui'ements.  He  came  as  a  reformer,  uttering  disagreeable  truths 
that  jarred  against  the  conceit  and  the  vanity  and  much  of  the 
patriotic  feeling  of  the  Jews.  And  he  stirred  up  their  vindictive 
and  malign  passions — for  they  were  strong  in  that  direction.  He 
came  apparently  disowned  by  the  leaders  of  his  people.  Yet  he 
represented  historic  Judaism.  He  was  in  accord  with  Moses  and 
the  Mosaic  institutes.  Nevertheless,  he  was  a  disturber.  And  when 
men  in  official  relations  looked  at  him,  he  seemed  to  them  an  extra- 
ordinary man.  But  they  did  not  know  how  he  would  turn  out,  or 
which  way  he  would  go.  And  it  was  very  natural  that,  being 
guided  by  their  lower  nature,  they  should  hold  themselves  in 
reserve — particularly  as  Jesus  had  formed  no  external  church  as 
separate  from  the  Jewish  church.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  he  never 
gathered  about  him,  and  never  organized,  any  band  of  men.  Even 
the  disciples  were  not  organized.     There  was  no  order,  no  rank,  no 


256  S USP ENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS. 

precedence,  among  them.  They  were  simply  twelve  companions  united 
in  a  common  cause,  as  twelve  men  gathered  casually  together  by  elect- 
ive affinity  would  go  on  a  journey  of  days  and  days,  not  organized, 
but  loosely  co-hering  by  their  sympathies.  There  was  no  organized 
church,  nor  any  church,  in  Christ's  time.  There  was  no  preparation 
for  a  future  external,  visible  kingdom.  There  was  no  plan  of 
organization  laid  down.  There  was  no  mode  of  worship  prescribed. 
Christ  was  a  pure  spiritualist.  He  taught  men  the  innermost  truths. 
He  almost  may  be  said  to  have  neglected  the  external  forms  which 
truths  must  put  on.  He  left  the  externalities  of  religion  to  take  care 
of  themselves.  Where  any  inward  thought  tended  to  give  itself  an 
outward  form,  he  let  it  do  so  r.?cording  to  its  own  nature.  He  dealt 
with  principles,  with  truths,  with  great  spiritual  elements.  And  it 
is  not  strange  that  men  should  not  like  to  commit  themselves  to  a 
man  who  represented  nothing  but  an  intangible  and  ill-apprehended 
spiritual  tendency — especially  as  he  was  in  such  disrej^ute.  The 
state  of  feeling  was  such  in  regard  to  Christ,  that  it  would  have 
brought  them  into  collision,  and  perhaps  mto  quarrel,  with  those 
of  their  own  class  who  had  esprit  de  corps,  if  they  had  identified 
themselves  with  him.  The  spirit  of  their  class  was  such  that  these 
men  were  slow  to  break  away  from  them  for  the  sake  of  adhering 
to  Christ.  It  would  have  put  in  jeopardy  their  peace,  their  har- 
mony, their   property  and  theii'   reputation. 

There  was  another  thing.  Probably  they  were  men  who  were 
tired  of  disquiet.  All  their  days  there  had  been  revolutions  break- 
ing out  incessantly  in  one  shape  or  another.  Wild  hopes  that  the 
Messiah  had  come  would  start  the  people  now  and  then,  in  this  di- 
rection or  in  that  direction  ;  and  they  had  been  stirred  up  so  much 
that  doubtless  then,  as  now,  there  were  many  thoughtful  and  cau- 
tious men  who  were  tired  of  these  perpetual  disturbances,  and  these 
pretentious  reformations,  that  ended  in  nothing. 

To  this  must  also  be  added  that  disposition  which  many  men 
have,  not  to  be  in  any  doubtful  or  uncompleted  development.  There 
are  some  men  who  love  the  front  line,  who  love  novelty,  and  who 
run  after  things  that  are  different  from  what  has  been  known  be- 
fore. There  are  other  men  who  are  the  reverse  in  their  tendencies. 
They  love  the  rear  line  because  it  is  safest.  There  are  men  who 
naturally  run  to  action.  There  are  other  men  who  are  naturally 
spectators  of  action.  There  are  men  who  tend  to  do  ;  and  there  are 
other  men  who  tend  to  thi7iJc.  Without  doubt  many  of  these  men 
were  of  a  reflective  cast  of  mind,  who  did  not  love  to  commit  them- 
selves. 

So,  then,  when  you  look  at  it  from  the  standpoint  of  human  ex- 


SUSPENDED  MOEAL  CONVICTIONS.  257) 

I 

perlence,  they  did  not  act  in  any  extraordinary  manner — not  dif- 
ferently from  what  men  are  acting  every  day.  And  I  think  before 
I  am  through  you  will  detect  in  yourselves  the  same  lines  of  reason- 
ing ;  the  same  conservative  tendencies  ;  the  same  gulf  between  moral 
intuitions  and  the  development  of  them  into  overt  life,  and  into 
declarations  before  men. 

Theirs  was  a  case  of  suspended  moral  consciousness.  They  saw 
Christ  perform  his  works  of  mercy,  and  believed  in  them.  They 
heard  his  discourses,  and  felt  the  truth  and  the  power  of  them.  In 
the  main,  they  thought  it  most  probable,  almost  certain,  that  he  was 
a  man  sent  from  God.  And  if  they  could  have  been  disconnected 
from  all  the  circumstances  around  about  them,  and  could  have  felt 
at  liberty,  as  men  say,  to  act  according  to  their  own  private  feelino-s 
without  regard  to  their  social  connections,  I  have  no  doubt  that  they 
would  have  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  Jesus,  and  rejoiced 
to  have  been  his  disciples.  They  saw,  they  sympathized,  they  be- 
lieved ;  but  they  stood  still.  They  did  not  allow  their  moral  con- 
victions to  issue,  either  in  personal  conduct,  or  in  declai-ations  of 
belief;  so  that  the  effect  which  was  wrought  by  the  truth  upon  their 
minds  never  came  to  fruit — at  any  rate,  never  during  his  life-time. 
It  was  held  in  suspense.  It  was  not  permitted  to  go  throuo-h  its 
natural  and  proper  evolutions. 

The  same  causes  are  producing  the  same  effects  still.  There  are 
multitudes  of  men  who  do  not  allow  their  best  feelings  and  their 
best  nature  to  develop  to  the  full.  They  keep  their  heart  in  sus- 
pense. Their  moral  consciousness  is  far  more  clearly  developed  on 
the  right  side  than  their  life  is.  Multitudes  of  men  are  worse  than 
their  seeming  ;  multitudes  also  are  far  better  than  their  seemino-  • 
that  is  is  to  say,  their  interior  consciousness  is  more  orthodox,  their 
interior  desires  are  more  nearly  spiritual,  their  secret  aspirations 
and  ambitions  point  far  higher,  than  you  would  suspect  from  any- 
thing that  you  see  outwardly. 

There  are  men  who  are  more  or  less  a-preaching  of  the  Gospel ; 
who  look  upon  society  not  with  a  careless  eye ;  who  have  deep  na- 
tures ;  whose  outward  characters  are  an  index  of  the  work  that  is 
going  on  in  them;  though  after  all  they  hold  back  from  form- 
ing definite  convictions,  they  hide  themselves  from  the  truth. 
There  are  men  also  who,  though  they  do  not  hide  themselves  from 
the  truth,  hide  themselves  from  the  results  to  which  the  truth  ought 
to  lead  them.    Both  of  these  classes  we  shall  consider  briefly. 

Some  men  have  a  sensitive  and  interpreting  conscience;  and 
this   has,  as  all   moral   sentiments  have,  a  kind  of  prophecy  in  it. 


258  SUSPENDED  MOEAL  CONVICTIONS. 

All  strong  moral  feelings  have  a  sort  of  moral  prescience.  They 
foresee,  in  a  dim,  nebulous  way.  Therefore  it  Avas  said  by  our 
Saviour,  "  Men  love  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds 
are  evil."  Men  have  a  kind  of  consciousness  that  if  they  were 
to  accept  certain  truths,  those  truths  would  compel  them  to  for- 
sake certain  pleasures ;  but  they  think  that  there  would  be  such 
an  inconsistency  between  their  practical  course  and  their  inward 
feelings  that  they  could  not  endure  it ;  and  they  are  not  prepared  to 
change  their  course.  They  are  under  full  sail ;  they  think  that  their 
outward  success  lies  in  the  direction  in  which  they  ai'e  going ;  they 
are  in  the  tide  of  power ;  and  they  have  a  consciousness  that  if  they 
were  to  yield  to  what  they  see  to  be  right  they  would  lose  the  aims 
and  ambitions  of  their  life ;  and  they  are  not  prepared  to  take  that 
step.  They  know  that  if  they  were  to  open  their  minds  to  the  full 
illumination  of  the  truth,  it  would  bring  them  into  such  controversy 
with  themselves  that  they  could  not  endure  it.  Such  men  will  not 
let  the  truth  come  to  them.  There  are  hundreds  of  men  who  say 
within  themselves,  "  If  I  ever  should  become  a  Christian,  I  know 
I  should  live  very  differently  from  what  I  do  now."  Oftentimes 
their  humility  leads  them  to  say,  "  I  should  live  much  better  than 
other  Christians  around  about  me  are  living."  There  is  no  telling 
how  men  would  live  if  they  were  Christians.  You  can  only  tell  how 
they  have  lived  after  they  have  become  Christians.  Living  a  Chris- 
tian life  is  no  easy  task — especially  for  those  who  have  been  long 
in  the  indulgence  of  wrong  courses. 

So  it  is  that  thousands  of  men  who  do  not  reject  the  teachings  of 
Christians ;  who  are  not  opposed  to  the  church ;  who  are  in  favor  of 
morality ;  who  revere  the  memory  of  their  parents  because  they  were 
pious  people ;  and  who  believe  in  much  that  they  hear,  and  feel  much 
that  belongs  to  the  truth — so  it  is  that  thousands  of  such  men  are 
perpetually  holding  themselves  in  suspense.  They  will  not  permit 
themselves  to  come  to  any  clear  and  definite  apprehension  of  truth 
as  it  is  related  to  their  character.  Nothing  is  more  common  than 
to  see  men  who  are  utterly  godless  shed  tears  at  hymns.  Men  who 
are  living  very  wicked  lives  will  read  the  prophecies,  will  read  the 
sublime  passages  of  Scripture  in  respect  to  God's  moral  sublimity, 
and  it  will  be  like  music  to  them.  Frequently  men  will  hear  preach- 
ing, who  do  not  expect  it  will  bring  them  to  a  practical  decision. 
What  they  want  is,  that  it  shall  play  on  those  deeper  chords  which 
vibrate  in  them.  And  they  have  so  much  of  moral  nature  held  in 
abeyance,  in  suspense,  that  it  is  grateful  to  them  to  have  that  moral 
nature  played  upon  by  poetry  and  eloquence,  only  so  that  it  does 


SUSPENDIJD  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS.  259 

not  "bring  them  to  a  decision,  to  a  clear,  decided  conviction  as  to  the 
way  of  duty,  and  prepare  them  for  revohition  in  the  way  of  conduct. 
Up  to  that  point  they  believe  in  truth,  and  love  to  think  about  it ; 
and  sometimes  they  say  to  themselves,  "  I  wonder  if  I  am  as  bad  a 
man  as  I  have  supposed  that  I  was,  and  as  I  am  told  that  I  am  ?  I 
like  hymns  ;  I  like  to  read  the  Bible ;  I  do  read  it  more  than  folks 
tliink  I  do ;  and  it  may  be,  after  all,  that  when  I  die  I  shall  wake  up 
and  see  how  good  I  was  on  earth."  Many  men  have  times  of  this 
misty  soliloquy  with  themselves. 

It  is  one  thing  to  have  an  ethical  sensibility,  and  it  is  another 
thing  to  have  practical  moral  piety.  It  is  one  thing  to  have  a  nature 
that  rejoices  in  the  excitement  of  moral  appeals.  It  is  another  thing 
to  bring  those  moral  appeals  to  bear  upon  your  dispositions,  upon 
your  ruling  purposes  in  life,  and  upon  your  conduct.  It  is  moral  sen- 
timent applied  that  makes  a  Christian  man  ;  and  the  mere  suscepti- 
bility to  moral  subjects  does  not  indicate  that  you  are  good,  nor  that 
you  are  not  bad,  A  man  may  love  to  have  hymns  poured  over  him, 
as  if  they  were  sweet  perfume ;  a  man  may  love  sermons ;  a  man 
may  love  all  things  in  the  church  that  are  sober  and  temperate  ;  a 
a  man  may  love  to  indulge  in  deep  thoughts  and  feelings,  so  that 
they  do  not  come  to  the  point  of  decision ;  so  that  they  do  not  break 
him  off  from  courses  that  he  does  not  mean  to  break  off  from — a  man 
may  do  all  this,  and  there  may  be  no  operative  and  practical  results 
in  his  case,  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  worse  than  nothing,  I  say 
that  it  is  not  sufficient,  I  say  that  it  is  a  crude  and  undeveloped 
state  of  moral  sensibility,  I  say  that  it  is  not  enough  to  save  a  man. 
It  will  not  ripen  him.  It  is  not  bad.  It  is  good.  It  is  much  better 
than  nothing.  It  should  be  cherished.  You  ought  to  be  glad  for 
so  much.  The  time  will  come,  it  may  be,  when  all  these  impressions 
and  sensibilities  will  result  in  decisions  that  will  bring  you  to  a  con- 
sistent, practical  development  of  Christian  life ;  but  at  present  they 
are  inchoate.  Tliey  are  not  developed  and  brought  into  action. 
They  come  short  of  what  is  necessary  to  make  you  a  Christian. 
Yours  is  a  case  of  suspended  animation,  or  semi-consciousness.  You 
are  in  a  half  sensitive  state  of  conscience,  or  moral  feeling.  You 
purposely  hold  your  convictions  in  subjection.  You  will  not  let 
them  come  to  light.  You  know  what  the  truth  is,  and  what  it  re- 
quires ;  but  you  will  not  decide  to  act  in  accordance  with  it,  because 
you  know,  as  well  as  though  it  had  been  told  you,  that  if  you  were 
to  come  to  such  a  decision,  you  would  have  to  change  your  life ;  and 
you  do  not  want  to  change  it. 

For  example :  I  am  shaving  notes  for  a  living;  and  I  am  making  a 
good  thing  of  it.     I  am  convinced  that  it  is  not  right.     I  know  that 


260  SUSPENDED  MORAL  CONVICTIONS. 

it  is  hardening  my  heart.  I  know  that  it  is  searing  my  conscience.  I 
know  that  I  am  coming  to  look  on  men  very  much  as  vultures  look 
on  birds,  only  with  the  thought  to  eat  them.  I  know  that  I  am  not 
cultivating  toward  them  a  spirit  of  kind  sympathy,  and  sweet  pity, 
and  loving  helpfulness,  and  cheerful  willingness  to  suffer  in  their  be- 
half I  know,  on  the  contrary,  that  I  am  growing  rich  on  other 
men's  misfortunes.  Nobody  comes  to  my  shambles  who  is  not  in 
trouble ;  and  when  a  man  comes  to  me  in  trouble,  I  gauge  the  amount 
which  I  will  exact  of  him  by  the  degree  of  his  trouble.  The  first 
time  he  conies  he  will  allow  twenty-five  per  cent. ;  the  next  time 
thirty-three  per  cent. ;  and,  perhaps,  as  a  last  resort,  he  will  go  as 
high  as  fifty  per  cent. ;  and  I  try  him  there.  Every  time  he  comes 
back  he  makes  up  his  mind  to  go  a  figure  higher.  He  does  it  to-day, 
he  does  it  to-morrow,  he  keeps  doing  it ;  and  I  watch  him,  and  take 
advantage  of  his  misfortunes  as  they  come  on  him. 

This  is  legal ;  it  is  perfectly  right  so  far  as  the  law  is  concerned : 
the  only  mischief  in  it  is,  that  it  kills  at  both  ends — at  the  breech 
and  at  the  muzzle.  A  man  under  such  circumstances  is  not  only  tak- 
ing the  life-blood  out  of  his  victim,  but  is  at  the  same  time  taking 
the  blood  of  humanity  out  of  his  own  spirit  and  soul.  He  is  being 
killed  dead.  And  yet  he  will  not  change  his  course.  He  is  conscious 
that  he  has  feelings  which  would  rise  up  and  lead  him  in  a  different 
direction ;  but  he  is  not  willing  to  be  guided  by  them,  and  so  he 
suppresses  them.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  buried  manhood  in  him ; 
and  frequently  the  old  bitter  spirit  comes  up ;  the  conviction  of  his 
wrong  conduct  forces  itself  upon  him ;  a  chance  visit  to  the  sanctu- 
ary brings  him  to  himself;  and  he  says,  "I  cannot  go  to  this  church 
and  keep  on  in  the  way  that  I  am  traveling.  I  must  either  leave 
this  church  or  leave  my  business.  I  cannot  take  both.  So  I  will 
not  go  to  church."  Thus  he  reasons.  He  foresees  that  if  he  gives 
liimself  up  to  what  he  believes  to  be  true,  that  if  he  permits  himself 
to  be  influenced  by  those  thoughts  and  feelings  which  tend  to  liber- 
alize a  man,  to  sweeten  his  disposition,  and  to  jjlant  love  where  self- 
ishness grows,  he  will  be  obliged  to  forego  this  most  profitable 
occupation.  And  he  says,  "  What  should  I  do  then  ?"  Men  stand 
over  against  their  moral  convictions,  and  say,  "  I  know  that  this 
business  is  wrong ;  but  if  I  should  give  it  uj3,  what  would  become 
of  my  wife  and  children  ?"  A  man  ought  to  think  that  the  very 
poorest  benefit  that  he  can  confer  upon  his  wife  and  children  is  to 
make  them  outwardly  rich  and  inwardly  disgraced  by  a  course  which 
he  would  not  like  to  talk  about,  or  have  them  talk  about. 

Then  the  next  natural  step  in  a  mind  that  is  not  utterly  per- 
verted, is  where  conviction  has  been  allowed  to  take  hold,  and  has 


SVSFENDFI)  MORAL  CONVICTIONS.  2GI 

become  active,  and  where  there  has  been  a  process  of  euspendinr^ 
moral  consciousness  between  a  conviction  of  the  truth  and  the  ap- 
propriate development  of  that  conviction  into  outward  action. 
Hei-e  is  a  very  large  class  of  persons — and  a  great  many  of  them 
are  parishioners  of  mine — who  are  cleai-ly  settled  in  their  judg- 
ments in  respect  to  the  truth,  but  who  hang  back  and  hesitate,  and 
do  not  make  themselves  known  as  Christians.  And  I  wish  to  ad- 
dress a  few  words  to  them.  I  am  not  preaching  a  sermon  purely 
of  criticism.  I  am  preaching  a  sermon  of  sympathy  just  as  well.  I 
would  be  glad  to  enter  into  your  feelings,  and  show  you  how  your 
mind  is  working,  and  why  it  is  that  you  are  not  out  and  out,  open, 
declared  Christian  men.  Very  many  of  you  are  ripe  in  belie  vino-. 
You  only  need  to  let  your  belief  begin  to  take  hold  on  action.  Then 
you  will  be  in  the  right  way. 

There  are  men  who  go  for  months  and  for  years  with  a  moral 
sense  far  in  advance  of  anything  which  they  allow  to  appear  in  their 
active  life.  There  are  men  who  have  thoughts  which  they  never 
speak,  but  which  roll  as  deep  as  the  tides  of  the  sea.  There  are  men 
who  pray  to  God,  and  whose  prayers  I  believe  are  acceptable,  but 
who  do  not  tell  the  dearest  friend  they  have  on  earth  that  there  is 
a  channel  of  supply  open  between  the  Throne  and  their  needy  souls. 
There  are  men  who  are  conscious  of  their  delinquencies,  who  are 
conscious  of  their  weaknesses  and  their  wickednesses,  who  are  hum- 
bled within  themselves,  who  confess  their  faults  before  God,  who 
ponder  these  things,  who  live  in  the  shadow  of  the  life  to  come,  and 
who  inwardly  experience  something  of  spirituality,  but  who  never 
say,  "I  know  that  I  am  unworthy  ;  I  know  that  I  am  sinful ;  I  know 
that  it  is  the  grace  of  God  that  is  helping  me."  There  are  men  who 
really  do  believe  that  their  souls  are  pardoned,  who  really  believe 
that  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  they  have  felt  the  cleansing  blood  of 
atonement,  Avho  really  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  related  intimately 
to  them,  but  who  do  not  avow  his  name,  and  are  not  anywhere 
known  as  his  children.  They  wear  the  crown  immortal ;  but  it  casts 
out  no  light ;  and  no  one  knows  that  they  wear  it. 

Now,  why  should  there  be  men  who  come  to  a  conviction  of  the 
truth,  and  of  its  moral  bearings,  and  stand  still  ?  Why  should  men 
be  like  many  of  the  chief  rulers  of  the  synagogue,  who  believed  in 
Christ,  but  would  not  confess  him  ?  Why  should  there  be  so  many 
who  believe  in  the  divinity  and  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but 
who  will  not  acknowledge  liim  ? 

There  are  many  who  I  suppose  are  kept  back  from  an  open 
avowal  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  motives  which  are  mistaken, 
but  which  are  not  so  unworthy  or  so  disgraceful.     There  are  many 


262  SUSF ENDED  MORAL  CONVICTIONS. 

vrho  are  kept  back,  I  verily  believe,  by  an  exceedingly  sensitive  con- 
science, acting  in  directions  of  false  doctrine  or  false  information. 
There  are,  for  instance,  persons  who  think  that  a  Christian  life  is  a 
thing  so  different  from  what  it  really  is,  that  it  would  be  a  falsity 
for  them  to  say,  "  I  am  a  Christian."  Their  education  has  led  them 
to  believe  that  no  man  is  a  Christian  who  has  not  been  brought 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  with  an  ouibreaking,  impetuous  experience. 

There  are  certain  kinds  of  goods  that  men  will  not  buy  unless 
they  have  a  given  trade-mark.  They  look  for  that,  and  if  they  find 
it  they  will  buy  the  goods ;  and  if  they  cannot  find  it  they  will  not 
buy  them.  And  many  persons  think  that  Christian  experience  has 
a  trade-mark,  which  consists  in  first  being  plunged  down  into  dark- 
ness, and  then  bolted  up  into  the  light,  and  with  such  vivid  impress- 
iveness  that  one  can  almost  remember,  by  the  clock,  the  minute  and 
the  second  when  the  event  took  place. 

A  man  says,  "  Such  a  person,  when  he  was  converted,  was 
at  first  swept  like  a  meteor  into  a  gulf  of  despair,  and  then  shot 
like  a  comet  into  the  realm  of  hope  and  peace  and  comfort ;  but  I 
never  had  any  experience  like  that ;  and  why  should  I  say  that  I 
am  a  Christian?"  And  so  men's  consciences  stand  in  their  way.  They 
cannot  profess  to  be  Christians  because  they  have  not  gone  through 
the  process  which  they  suppose  to  be  indispensable  to  a  genuine  con- 
version. 

Yet,  if  you  look  at  the  history  of  those  who  followed  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ;  if  you  look  at  the  history  of  the  apostles  and  others 
who  became  Christ's  disciples,  you  shall  find  that  for  the  most  part 
they  had  no  such  out-breaking  and  up-breaking  experiences  as  those 
to  which  I  have  alluded.  They  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
Saviour,  and  into  personal  affiliation  with  him  and  with  his  work,  in 
an  even  quiet  way,  without  any  exact  recognition  of  the  time  when 
the  change  was  wrought. 

Where  one  is  brought  into  the  Christian  life  tumultuously, 
and  there  are  precise  marks  which  may  be  thus  noted,  I  do  not 
undervalue  them.  I  do  not  say  that  persons  who  are  converted  in 
an  uproarious  way  are  not  truly  converted.  But  I  do  say  that  per- 
sons who  have  a  sense  of  truth,  who  have  an  aspiration  for  that  which 
is  right,  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  however  gentle  their  ex- 
perience may  be,  have  a  right  to  call  themselves  Christ's  disciples, 
and  have  a  right  to  live  openly  the  life  which  they  are  endeavoring 
to  live  secretly. 

Nothing  is  more  illusive,  and  nothing  is  more  difficult  to  man- 
ago,  than  a  conscience  illuminated  by  ideality,  or  imagination,  as 
some  would  call  it — that  faculty  or  power  in  us  by  wiiich  we  dis' 


SUSPDNBUD  MOEAL  CONVICTIOJSS.  263 

cern  invisible  things,  and  by  which  our  conceptions  are  raised,  lifted, 
carried  up,  beautified,  glorified.  An  idealized  conscience  is  al- 
ways raising  the  conception  of  duty.  It  is  always  raising  the 
standard  of  right.  It  is  always  magnifying  things  so  that  when 
men  look  upon  the  best  of  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  measure 
them  by  an  idealized  standard,  the  difference  is  so  wide  between 
what  they  are  and  what  they  ought  to  be,  that  they  say  in  them- 
.  selves,  "  It  would  be  jjresumption  in  me  to  pretend  that  I  am  a 
Christian." 

A  painter  who  had  lived  in  the  provinces,  and  who  had  acquired 
some  little  reputation  in  his  OAvn  neighborhood,  and  had  never  seen 
a  master's  picture,  went  to  Rome,  and  stood  before  the  works  of 
Titian  and  Raphael.  He  gazed  at  them  long  and  silently,  and  at 
last  he  said,  "  I,  too,  am  a  painter."  There  is  a  whole  history  in 
that.  He  had  been  painting  where  he  could  not  compare  himself 
with  anybody  else ;  and  now  his  feeling  of  aspiration  led  him  to  say 
this,  as  he  looked  upon  the  works  of  acknowledged  artists.  It 
was  not  inconsistent  with  humility.  He  felt  that  the  artist  talent 
was  in  him,  too,  and  that  if  he  could  not  equal  those  pictures,  he 
could  approach  toward  them.  And  he  said, "  If  those  men  are  artists, 
then  I  am  an  artist.  It  may  be  that  I  am  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale ; 
but  I  have  some  of  the  same  thing  in  me  which  there  is  in  them," 

And  so  there  are  men  who  have  in  them  impulses  that  are 
powerfully  drawing  them  upward ;  they  have  an  honorable  ambi- 
tion ;  they  have  spiritual  etherealizations ;  their  sense  of  duty  is 
transcendently  high ;  and  oh !  that  they  might  at  last  look  upon 
Christ  Jesus  in  such  a  way  that  they  should  see  in  themselves  some- 
thing of  him,  here  and  there,  and  be  able  to  say,  "  Well,  I  am 
Christ's  man — a  very  poor  one,  a  very  imperfect  one,  but  never- 
theless his." 

There  are  many  persons  kept  back  from  an  open  Christian  life 
for  months  and  years,  and  sometimes  during  their  whole  lives,  who 
say,  "  How  can  I  go  into  the  Church,  and  profess  my  faith  in  that 
long  and  intricate  scheme  of  doctrines  ?  I  cannot."  "  Oh  !  but," 
people  say  to  them,  "  it  is  not  understood  that  you  profess  these 
things.  They  are  for  the  ministers."  "  Yet,  they  say,  it  is  gen- 
erally understood  that  the  members  assent  to  them,  and  people  will 
think  that  I  believe  them  when  I  do  not ;  and  I  cannot  give  my  as- 
sent to  such  doctrines.  I  am  profoundly  conscious  of  the  sinfulness 
of  my  nature ;  I  am  profoundly  conscious  of  my  need  of  grace  and 
love  and  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  I  am  willing  to  live  accord- 
ing to  his  wish ;  I  would  be  willing  to  say  that  much,  but  I 
cannot  go  beyond  that." 


264  SUSPENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS. 

Brethren,  the  church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ought  to  be  so 
largely  made,  it  ought  to  be  organized  in  such  a  way,  that  any  soul 
that  wants  to  follow  Christ  can,  without  violating  its  letter  or  its 
spirit,  come  in  and  say,  "  I  am  Christ's  for  life  and  death,"  The 
church  ouffht  not  to  be  burdened  with  such  doctrines  and  dogmas 
and  complicated  governments  that  men  should  be  compelled  to  stand 
outside  of  it  all  their  life  long,  saying,  "  I  desire  to  follow  Christ, 
but  I  dare  not  take  upon  myself  the  avowal  of  such  a  ritual  of  be- 
liefs as  the  church  prescribes."  Following  Christ  is  a  life-work,  and 
not  at  first  a  philosophical  work — though  that  may  come  afterward. 

There  are  many  who  wish  to  live  Christianly,  but  who  do  not 
wish  to  be  held  responsible  according  to  the  Christian  standard. 
There  are  a  great  many  who  look  at  the  way  in  which  church-mem- 
bers live,  and  criticise  them  severely  (a  thing  which  is  not  very 
amiable),  saying,  "  I  endeavor  in  every  ]^art  of  my  life  to  conform  to 
Christian  morals  ;  I  try  to  govern  my  tongue ;  I  try  to  control  my 
temper ;  I  try  to  conduct  my  business  according  to  the  best  light 
that  I  can  get ;  I  try  to  regulate  my  life  as  I  think  a  Christian  man 
ought  to  ;  and  I  try  to  bring  my  children  up  after  the  highest  model." 
I  say  to  them,  Why  not  add  to  that,  "  Christ  is  my  model,  and  I 
live  by  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,"  for  the  comfort  of  those  around 
about  you  ?  They  say,  "  I  do  not  feel  that  I  could  take  on  myself 
the  open  responsibility."  These  are  men  that  make  secret  marriages 
with  Christ. 

There  have  been  princes  who,  for  reasons  of  State,  did  not  dare 
to  openly  follow  their  real  aifection,  but  secretly  married  them- 
selves to  the  women  whom  their  hearts  loved.  They  entered  into  the 
marriage  relation,  but  never  avowed  it.  They  wanted  the  comfort 
of  heart  which  came  from  that  relation,  but  they  kept  it  secret,  be- 
cause tliey  did  not  want  to  stand  before  the  State  and  be  condemned 
as  having  formed  a  mesalliance. 

There  are  many  who  want  to  have  a  secret  alliance  with  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ;  who  want  to  have  all  the  sympathy  and  succor- 
ing benedictions  which  come  from  faith  in  him ;  but  who  do  not 
want  to  avow  it  openly,  because  they  do  not  choose  to  stand  before 
men  committed  to  all  that  Christianity  is  popularly  supposed  to  im- 
ply. Sometimes  men  give  this  a  better  name  than  I  do  ;  but  where 
men  are  living,  or  trying  to  live,  a  Christian  life,  I  think  they  ought 
honestly  to  say,  "  I  am  living  this  life,  so  far  as  I  am  living  it  at  all," 
by  the  faith  and  help  of  the  Son  of  God." 

Then  there  are  many  who  are  kept  back  from  following  their 
convictions  of  duty,  and  living  an  open  life  of  Christian  faith,  by 
alFection — not  aflfection  to  God,  but  afiection  to  their  friends.    There 


SUSPENDED  MOIiAL  CONVICTIONS.  265 

is  many  a  loving  woman  who  is  secretly  living  a  Christian  life,  but 
who  is  waiting  before  she  makes  an  avowal  of  her  faith,  until  she 
can  brino-  her  husband  with  her.  There  is  many  a  woman  who  is 
full  of  prayer,  and  full  of  faith,  and  full  of  the  purest  Christian 
virtues,  but  all  of  whose  household — her  father,  her  mother,  her 
brothers  and  sisters — all  with  whom  she  stands  connected — are  op- 
posed to  her.  And  her  heart  is  rent.  She  cannot  endure  to  sep- 
arate herself  from  them  as  she  feels  that  she  will  be  obliged  to  if 
she  publicly  joins  herself  to  the  people  of  God.  It  would  require  a 
great  deal  of  heroism  for  one  thus  situated  to  do  it.  I  can  conceive 
of  one  who  has  been  brought  up  shrinkingly,  exquisitely  sensitive, 
who  has  formed  unfortunate  alliances,  and  who  has  twined  her  heart 
about  those  who  do  not  sympathize  with  her  in  her  religious  aspira- 
tions, and  finds  it  hard  to  rise  up  and  break  away  from  them 
all,  and  make  known  to  the  world  that  she  is  Christ's,  engaging 
actively  and  earnestly  in  duties  which  separate  between  them  and 
her.  This  is  indeed  taking  up  the  cross.  There  are  many  that 
could  die  with  fewer  pangs  than  they  could  live  and  let  it  be  known 
that  they  were  Christians.  And  yet  Christ  says,  "  He  that  will  not 
confess  me  before  men  I  will  not  confess  before  God." 

"  If  you  do  not  love  me  enough  to  have  it  known,"  a  suitor 
might  well  say,  "  then  you  do  not  love  me  enough  to  have  me." 
And  Christ  says  in  substance,  "  If  you  do  not  love  me  enough  to 
take  me  first,  and  in  preference  to  all  other  things,  then  your  love  is 
not  a  fit  mate  for  mine."  And  yet,  many  persons  are  held  back 
from  an  open  and  devout  Christian  life  by  the  sweetest  afi:*ections, 
but  affections  that  are  drawing  the  wrong  way. 

There  are  many  sympathetic  natures  that  take  their  shape  and 
direction  in  life  very  much  from  those  who  are  around  them — men 
that  are  not  only  to  be  blamed,  but  also  much  to  be  pitied. 

If  you  stand  a  bar  of  iron  in  heat  like  that  of  yesterday  or  to- 
day, it  expands,  but  not  to  a  degree  that  will  be  appreciable  to  the 
senses.  If,  however,  you  put  alongside  of  it  a  thermometer,  how 
the  expanding  mercury  goes  driving  up  the  tube  !  How  marked 
and  apparent  are  the  changes  which  take  place  in  the  mercury  ! 
During  the  night,  the  iron  bar  contracts  again  ;  but  the  contraction 
is  so  gradual  and  so  small  that  no  one  can  see  it.  The  mercury  in 
the  thermometer,  on  the  other  hand,  goes  down,  and  goes  down  in 
such  a  way  that  everybody  who  looks  on  can  see  that  it  moves. 

Now,  all  persons  who  are  converted  are  affected.  Some  are  as 
sensitive  to  influences  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon  them  as  the 
thermometer  is  to  heat  and  cold  ;  and  they  rise  and  fall  all  the  time. 
They  are  constantly  warped  and  biased.     As  the  musical  instrument 


266  SUSPENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS. 

is  played  upon  by  the  hand  of  the  musician,  so  they  are  played  upon 
and  hindered  by  sympathetic  influences.  They  would,  if,  fortun- 
ately for  them  there  was  any  current  setting  toward  the  conftssion 
of  their  faith,  be  swept  on  by  it ;  but  if  it  were  necessary  for  them 
to  go  forth  alone,  as  often  as  they  stepped  out  they  would  be  drawn 
back  again.  If  their  purpose  is  fresh  in  the  morning,  it  dies  before 
evening.  If  on  the  Sabbath  day  they  are  persuaded,  before  the 
week  is  passed  they  are  unpersuaded.  Their  heart  is  like  a  bay  of 
the  sea,  into  which  the  tide  runs,  and  out  of  which  it  runs  again, 
alternately,  forever  vacillating,  forever  changing. 

To  these  must  be  added  those  who  are  affected  by  the  love  of 
praise,  the  instinct  of  self-interest,  and  those  ten  thousand  social 
influences  which  interfere  with  the  clarity  of  a  man's  judgment,  the 
wisdom  of  his  purposes,  and  the  simplicity  of  his  self-devotion.  All 
these  elements  are  working  on  men,  and  holding  them  back,  so  that 
there  are  hundreds  and  thousands  who  stand  for  years  without 
having  that  royal  Name  associated  with  them — men  who  are  not  far 
from  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  who  are  secretly  attempting  to  live  a 
Christian  life. 

There  are  in  this  congregation  a  great  many  men  of  that  kind — 
men  whose  convictions  need  nothing ;  men  whose  judgments  are 
sufticiently  clear ;  men  whose  hearts  are  on  the  side  of  the  truth  and 
of  the  Christian  church,  but  who  have  not  openly  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  many  times  in  which 
they  accept  the  Saviour ;  there  ai-e  many  times  when  they  commune 
with  Jesus ;  there  are  many  times  when  they  are  conscious  of  hav- 
ing Christian  experiences  ;  but  they  do  not  rise  up,  and  come  out 
boldly,  and  put  their  names  on  the  roll  of  Christ's  followers,  and 
range  themselves  under  his  banner,  and  own  him  as  the  Captain  of 
their  salvation. 

In  view  of  this  exposition,  I  remark,  first,  that  there  are  many 
persons  who  have  a  large  treasure,  a  vast  mine  of  wealth,  within 
them,  of  which  they  are  themselves  scarcely  conscious,  and  which 
they  certainly  never  improve  to  any  such  extent  as  it  might  be  im- 
])roved.  I  think  that  now  there  are  many  persons  out  of  the  church 
who  are  as  good  or  better  than  many  that  ai'e  in  it.  I  think  there 
are  many  persons  who  do  not  believe  themselves  Chi-istians,  who  are 
better  than  many  who  do  believe  themselves  Christians.  And  I  think 
they  are  culpable  for  their  indiscreet  conservatism.  The  character 
of  their  inward  experience  indicates  that  they  are  living  a  life  of 
faith  ;  and  frequently  they  stand  much  higher  in  their  Christian  at- 
tainments than  many  who  are  ostentatiously  Christians.  Now  it  is 
their  business  to  let  the  source  of  those  attainments  be  known. 


SUSPENDED  MORAL  CONVICTIONS.  267 

There  are  many  men  in  whose  souls  is  a  spark  of  the  divine  nature; 
but  they  never  bring  it  out  and  let  it  shine.  It  lies  hidden  away  in 
them,  and  nobody  except  themselves  knows  that  it  is  there.  There 
are  many  men  deep  down  in  whose  natures,  under  all  their  manifold 
imperfections,  is  a  point  and  center  of  palpitating  love  and  faith ; 
and  oh,  that  they  would  uncover  it  and  let  the  light  of  God's  coun- 
tenance illumine  it !  There  are  many  persons  who  are  living  Chris- 
tian lives  under  difficult  circumstances,  who  ought  to  come  out  and 
say,  "I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  wish  to  join  the  company  of  those 
who  are  going  to  heaven." 

One  of  the  most  favorite  pears  in  the  market  is  the  Duchesse 
d  ^ AngouUme,  which  was  a  wilding  and  grew  in  a  hedge,  and  was  a 
hedge  plant,  until  one  day  the  proprietor,  going  to  visit  his  pro- 
vincial farm,  saAV  the  fruit,  and  tasted  it,  and  was  delighted  with 
it.  So  he  determined  to  transplant  it ;  and  he  cleared  away  tlie 
hedge,  took  it  up,  carried  it  into  his  garden,  and  cultivated  it.  The 
result  was  that  it  became  almost  the  pear  of  the  world.  And  it  was 
fitting  that,  instead  of  being  allowed  to  bloom  and  bear  its  luscious 
fruit  in  obscurity,  it  should  have  been  brought  into  the  garden 
where  it  could  be  seen,  and  where  its  fruit  could  be  enjoyed. 

I  think  there  are  magnificent  fruit-trees  growing  in  hedges  yet, 
which  might  Avell  be  taken  out  and  put  where  there  is  a  better  soil 
and  a  better  exposure,  so  that  they  might  spread  their  branches  un- 
checked by  surrounding  growths.     There  are  many  persons  in  so- 
ciety who  have  gone  under  the  influence  of  secondary  and  lower 
feelings  so  long,  that  there  has  a  kind  of  crust  formed  over  their  real 
character,  which  hides  it.   There  are  people  of  all  degrees  and  classes 
of  goodness  and  badness,  but  nobody  is  perfect.     And  among  these 
there  is  a  very  large  class  whose  outside  is  bad,  and  whose  inside  is 
good.     Like  chestnuts,  they  are  hard  to  deal  with,  but  are  excellent 
when  they'  are  out  of  the  burr.     There  are  many  persons  whose  ex- 
ternal life,  wliose  practical  life,  whose  life  in  the  school  in  which  they 
have  been  brought  up,  and  in  the  career  which  they  have  followed,  is 
justly  danmable,  but  in  Avhom,  after  all,  there  are  sweet  dispositions, 
and  who  really  are  actuated  by  an  internal  sense  of  honor  and  man- 
liness.    These  better  traits  have  not  been  discovered,  and  brought 
out  and  developed  ;  but  they  are  in  them.     And  if  there  could  be 
some  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  them  which  should  lead  them 
to  break  through  the  outer  crust   which    envelops  them ;    if  that 
could   be   brought   out   which  lies  slumbering  in  them ;    if    their 
moral  consciousness,  where  their  true  manhood   resides,  could  be 
brought  into  vigorous  exercise,  they  would  be  transformed  almost 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 


268  SUSPENDED  MORAL  CONVICTIONS. 

I  believe  that  among  bad  men  (and  there  are  a  great  many  bad 
men)  there  are  not  a  few  that  have  the  capacity  of  being  very  good, 
if  somebody  would  take  them  by  the  hand,  and  say  to  them,  "  You 
are  carrying  immortal  treasures  in  you,  but  a  little  below  the  sur- 
face ;  and  if  God's  grace  could  but  set  on  fire  your  better  nature 
which  lies  hidden  beneath  an  unlovely  exterior,  it  would  give  forth 
a  light  which  would  guide  you  to  the  very  land  of  immortality." 

Are  there  not  some  here  who  swear,  and  are  careless  about  the 
Sabbath,  and  are  not  altogether  particular  about  their  companions, 
but  who  find  themselves  bound  by  rigorous  conceptions  of  personal 
honor  and  personal  duty,  of  truth  and  fidelity,  and  who,  in  the  hour 
of  trial,  when  sickness  comes  into  the  neighborhood,  are  ready  to 
lay  down  their  life  for  the  sake  of  others,  and  who  cannot  endure  to 
Bee  persons  persecuted,  and  will  stand  between  the  victim  and  his 
oppressor,  and  will  go  out  of  their  way  to  help  a  disciple  of  Christ  ? 
/  I  believe  there  are  many  men  who  seem  externally  bad,  but  who  are 
/  internally  good.  I  believe  that  in  many  men  whom  we  call  bad, 
there  is  an  intrinsic  nature  which,  if  it  could  be  touched  by  the  fire 
of  heavenly  love,  would  consume  all  this  outwardness  which  stands 
in  the  way  of  their  higher  development,  so  that  they  would  come 
out  into  the  blessedness  of  a  Christian  life. 

Are  there  not  some  in  this  congregation  who  are  wearing  the 

steel  armor  of  the  world,  but  who  carry  inside  a  great  heart,  a  tender 

t      conscience,  a   real  contempt   for  shams,  and  intense  longings    for 

i      righteousness  ?     Are  there  not  men  before  me  who  wish  they  were 

Christians,  and  who  long  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  although  they 

know  that  they  are  in  the  kingdom  of  Satan  ? 

To  such  I  speak  to-day.  You  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Carry  your  belief  into  action.  Profess  his  name.  Range  yourselves 
with  his  followers. 

Finally,  I  think  there  are  many  persons  who,  for  want  of  open- 
ness and  publicity,  for  want  of  declaration,  for  want  of  freedom  and 
active  exercise  in  a  Christian  life,  are  losing  not  only  the  best 
developments  of  Christian  feeling  in  themselves,  but  their  best  op- 
portunities to  pay  honor  to  Him  whose  name  is  above  every  name. 
\  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."     It  is  very  pleasant, 

I  when  a  man  has  done  well,  to  have  some  one  whom  he  honors  tell 
\  him  so  ;  and  yet  there  is  something  which  is  sweeter  than  that. 
When  you  have  been  beholden  to  a  man  ;  when  a  man  has  written 
things  that  it  has  done  you  good  to  read ;  when  you  are  consciously 
lifted  into  a  life  of  greater  purity  and  manliness  and  usefulness  by 
some  teacher  or  friend,  to  be  able  to  express  your  obligation  to  your 
benefactor  is,  I  think,  one  of  the  most  grateful  of  all  experiences. 


SUSPENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS.  269 

I  never  see  Dr.  Lieber  of  New  York  that  I  do  not  want  to  go 
and  take  him  by  the  hand,  and  say,  "  I  thank  you."  I  read  his  books 
when  I  was  a  boy,  and  they  laid  the  foundation  for  half  that  I  know 
in  respect  to  political  economy — though  unfortunately  that  is  not 
much.  I  never  see  him  that  I  do  not  have  a  grateful  sense  of  what 
I  owe  him.  I  would  go  to  Europe  to  express  ray  thanks  to  some 
men.  I  would  go,  a  pilgrim,  to  Europe,  if  I  might  help  some  men 
who  are  in  the  rigor  of  poverty,  but  who  deserve  better  things  in 
the  world  than  others  who  are  rolling  in  wealth. 

And  how  should  we  feel  toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  who  has 
created  summer  about  us  ?  Jesus,  the  name  above  every  name,  has 
cheered  us,  inspired  our  hope,  and  been  our  guide  through  this 
stormy  life  ;  and  how  ought  we  to  feel  in  respect  to  him  ?  Is  it 
right  to  receive  everything  from  Christ,  and  then  to  hide  your 
honor  and  your  praise  of  him  ?  Is  it  right  to  have  every  part  of 
your  life  blessed  by  the  love  of  Christ,  and  never  say  one  word  of 
that  love  to  men  ?  Fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  is  it  right  for 
you  to  feel  that  there  is  a  golden  cord  of  hope  that  runs  from  your 
heart  up  to  the  throne  of  God,  and  yet  be  unwilling  to  be  known  as 
the  lovers  and  the  trusters  of  the  blessed  Saviour  ? 

I  beseech  of  you,  if  there  be  those  who  love  Christ,  who  believe 
in  him,  do  not  linger  any  longer.  Rise  up,  overleap  the  barriers, 
come  forth,  and  say,  "  I  am  the  Lord's,  and  he  is  mine."  Be  glad 
that  men  look  upon  you  and  say,  "  He  is  a  Christian" ;  and  then 
live  so  that  men  shall  honor  Him  whose  life  in  you  is  being  devel- 
oped day  by  day. 


270  SUSPENBBB  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON 

"We  are  glad  to  be  brought  home  again.  We  are  glad  for  this  day  of  rest 
that  separates  between  cares  and  troubles,  and  gives  us  hours  of  sweet  re- 
lease in  which  we  can  look  upward  and  look  backward  and  look  forward  and 
behold  thy  providence,  and  thine  own  self,  and  ourselves,  in  the  light  of  the 
better  world.  We  thank  thee  for  all  the  hope  that  we  have  of  immortality. 
We  thank  thee  that  the  care  of  life,  and  its  rudest  experiences,  are  softened 
by  the  thought  of  that  life  which  is  to  come.  If  we  triumph  here,  how  glo- 
rious shall  be  our  rest  there  I  If  now  we  are  pressed  by  the  battle,  and  s  eem 
approaching  to  defeat,  we  know  that  they  that  are  for  us  are  more  and 
mightier  than  they  that  are  against  us,  and  that  by  faith  we  shall  overcome 
even  the  last  enemy.  Death.  Yea;  when  in  the  hour  that  heart  and  flesh 
shall  fail,  we  are  despoiled,  and  carried  away  captive,  and  hidden  from  the 
sight  of  men,  and  corruption  seems  to  have  triumphed — then,  in  the  hour  of 
earthly  defeat,  we  still  shall  be  conquerors,  and  more  than  conquerors, 
through  Him  that  loved  us.  In  that  hope  of  the  future  lies  the  joy  of  our 
present.  All  that  is  sweet  and  pleasant  in  life,  and  belongs  to  it,  and  in  no 
wise  takes  hold  of  thee  and  of  the  life  to  come,  is  perishable.  All  earthly 
fountains  which  give  us  drink  leave  thirst  with  each  drinking  ;  and  all 
earthly  food  only  prepares  the  way  for  another  and  a  higher  kind  of  food. 
From  thine  hand  comes  the  water  of  life  that  quenches  thirst ;  and  from 
thee  comes  that  bread  which  satisfies  hunger  forevermore.  And  in  the  hope 
of  that  glorious  life,  and  its  banquet;  in  the  hope  of  that  blessed  meeting 
where  all  infirmity  is  gone,  and  all  possibility  of  evil  is  ended,  and  all  are 
united  again  that  are  separated  on  earth,  and  all  inequalities  are  rounded 
up  into  a  glorious  perfectness  of  divine  nature — in  the  hope  of  the  life  to 
come,  how  easy  it  is  tobear  the  drudgeries  of  this  life,  and  all  its  chafes,  and 
its  fevers,  and  its  cares,  and  its  burdens !  It  is  thou  that  by  these  hopes  dost 
quicken  us,  to  endure  our  present  ill,  in  the  certainty  that  out  of  it  shall 
come  blessings  innumerable — joys  from  tears;  and  songs  from  sighs  ;  and 
vietory  from  defeat;  and  rest  from  labor;  and  everlasting  life  from  death 
itself.  To  thee,  O  Lord  Jesus !  we  owe  these  precious  promises  and  hopes. 
And  to  thee,  this  morning,  we  give  ascriptions  of  praise.  Every  knee  doth 
bow,  and  every  tongue  doth  confess  that  thou  art  Lord  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father. 

And  now  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  work  in  every  heart,  this 
morning.  According  to  thine  own  sovereign  pleasure,  out  of  thy  goodness 
and  mercy,  and  according  to  thy  wisdom  and  thine  insight,  do  for  us  that 
which  we  need.  We  pray  for  strength,  and  we  pray  for  all  those  graces  of 
the  Spirit  by  which  we  are  to  live.  And  we  pray  that  we  may  have  minis- 
tered to  us,  to-day,  such  views  of  truth  as  shall  quicken  us  in  the  duties  of 
life. 

And  draw  near  to  those  that  need  thee  this  morning.  By  the  exercise  of 
thy  providence  thou  art  training  thy  people,  and  art  not  explaining  the 
reason  of  what  thou  art  doing.  Thou  art  saying  to  them,  "Ye  know  not 
now  what  I  do,  but  ye  shall  know  hereafter."  We  would  remit  to  the  dis- 
closure of  the  hereafter  the  mystery  of  the  present  life,  rather  thtui  spend 
our  time  in  seeking  to  find  out  God,  who  cannot  be  found  out  to  perfection. 

We  pray,  O  God,  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  those  on  whom  thou  hast 
laid  thy  hand.  Let  them  feel  that  it  is  God,  and  that  his  touch  is  full  of 
kindness  and  of  mercy  even  when  it  brinps  pain. 

Be  near  to  those  that  are  in  great  sorrows  and  afilictions,  and  comfort 
them.  Be  near  to  any  that  feel  themselves  left  alone.  Be  near  to  those 
whose  burdens  seem  greater  than  they  can  bear,  and  whose  hearts  from  day 
to  day  are  full  of  poignant  suffering.    Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  guide 


SUSPENDED  MOBAL  CONVICTIONS.  271 

them,  and  that  thou  wilt  give  them  so  grateful  a  sense  of  thy  presence,  and 
of  thy  sure  providence  in  them  and  upon  them,  that  they  may  rest.  Oh  1 
may  there  be  many  hearts  that  to-day  shall  do  as  children  do  who  flee  from 
the  face  of  those  that  hurt  them,  and  with  wild  outcry  of  alarm  rush  to 
their  pareuts,  and  hide  themselves  in  their  bosom,  and  forget  their  troubles 
and  fears  and  tears.  Open  thine  arms  for  the  oppressed  ones.  Let  thy  heart 
be  a  refuge  for  thy  people  to-day  ;  and  out  of  cares,  out  of  fear,  out  of  an- 
guish, out  oi  bereavements,  and  out  of  the  oppressions  of  this  world,  may 
they  be  able  to  flee  and  find  rest  in  the  arms  and  in  the  bosom  of  their  God. 

And  Wi-  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  awaken  in  hearts  so  rescued  and 
released  a  more  gracious  faith  in  thee;  a  more  abiding  confidence  in  thy 
presence,  and  in  thine  helpfulness.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  it  may  be 
easier,  from  the  things  which  they  have  suffered,  and  from  the  things  which 
they  have  experienced  in  release  from  suffering,  to  trust  God  in  days  to 
come.  How  often  shall  we  tread  the  same  road,  fearing,  and  rescued,  only 
to  fear  again !  When,  at  last,  shall  we  run  to  cast  our  care  on  thee,  and  not 
take  it  back  again  ?  When  shall  we  know  the  peace  that  passeth  all  under- 
standing, which  God  gives,  and  which  the  world  cannot  lake  away?  Bring 
into  this  secret  experience  of  thine  own  life  the  lives  of  thy  dear  people  to- 
day. And  bless  to  them  the  memories  of  the  past.  Sanctify  to  them  the 
manifold  experiences  of  their  lives.  And  may  they  be  able  to-day,  in  the 
fullness  of  their  trust  in  God,  to  look  upon  all  that  is  dearest  to  them,  and 
say.  Thy  will,  O  Lord,  be  done. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  all  who  have  come  this  morning  with  hearts  full 
of  love  and  gratitude  for  unexpected  favors,  for  gracious  deliverances,  for 
mercies  in  over  measure,  of  which  they  are  tenderly  conscious,  may  have 
access  to  thee,  that  they  may  pour  out  their  thanksgiving  and  praise,  and 
that  they  may  feel  that  God  is  in  them  and  over  them,  and  that  he  rejoices 
in  the  joy  of  his  people. 

And  we  pray  for  any  that  are  to-day  strangers  among  us.  We  beseech  of 
thee  that  by  the  Holy  Ghost  iheir  hearts  may  grow  into  such  communion 
with  God  and  his  people  that  they  shall  have  found  here  a  home  for  the  soul. 
May  the  house  of  God  be  to  them  a  very  place  of  rest. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  go  with  the  thoughts  of  those  who  wander  after 
their  beloved ;  who  are  separated  from  those  that  are  dearest  to  them  on 
earth.  Some  search  for  their  beloved  upon  the  seas.  Grant  that  a  blessing 
may  come  upon  all  those  that  are  on  the  great  waters.  Some  search  for 
their  loved  ones  afar  off  in  other  lands.  Grant  that  ihy  blessing  oiay  be 
swifter  than  their  thoughts.  Some  seek  for  their  own  in  distant  parts  of 
our  own  land.  And  some  mourn  wheu  they  think  of  those  who  are  separa- 
ted from  them  in  evil  ways,  and  with  wicked  companions.  And  we  pray 
that  thy  mercies  may  go  forth  in  answer  to  their  supplication  to-day.  Oh^ 
that  the  cries  of  i)arents  for  their  children  might  be  heard;  and  that  the 
tears  and  prayers  of  children  for  their  parents  might  bring  them  together 
in  blessed  union  in  Christ  Jesus!  Oh,  that  those  who  are  separated  from 
each  other  might  see  eye  to  eye  again,  and  hands  clasp  hands  in  inseparable 
friendships!  Oh,  that  those  who  are  burdened,  and  who  are  walking  in  a 
trying  way,  might  to-day  put  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  heart  to  heart,  and 
stand  in  the  fuUness  of  the  blessings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

And  so  we  pray  that  this  may  be  a  house  of  deliverance ;  a  house  of  bless- 
ing; a  house  of  joy,  to-day.  And  be  thou  in  the  midst  of  thy  people,  to 
make  this  day  a  jubilee  to  them.  And  we  pray  that  those  who  are  stand- 
ing apart,  and  looking  on  wistfully,  and  marveling  what  these  experiences 
mean,  may  bear  the  voice  of  God  calling  to  them.  Are  they  not  also  chil- 
dren of  th«  Lord  ?  Are  not  they,  too,  to  be  sanctified  by  the  precious  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  ?    Oh,  that  all  to-day  might  realize  their  portion  in  Christ; 


272  S USFENBBD  MOBAL  CON  VIGTIONS 

that  all  might  rise  up  and  go  home.  Though  they  be  sinful;  though  they 
are  not  able  yet  to  break  off  from  their  sins  by  their  own  strength,  may  they 
cry  out  to  thee.  As  suppliants  by  the  wayside,  desiring  to  be  healed  of 
their  blindness,  called,  and  called  again  to  thee,  and  would  not  be  stopped 
by  those  that  rebuked  them,  so  may  thy  afflicted  ones  cry  out  unto  thee. 
And  so  do  thou  stand  and  command  them  to  come.  And  wilt  thou  touch 
their  eyes  that  they  may  see.    And  seeing,  may  they  behold  thee. 

We  pray  for  all  those  who  are  in  our  midst  laboring  for  the  young,  and 
for  the  wandering,  and  for  the  neglected.  We  pray  for  all  classes  and  con- 
ditions of  men.  May  they  work  with  more  love  and  more  patience  and 
more  and  more  wisdom,  and  with  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit 
of  God. 

We  pray  for  all  our  land.  We  pray  for  all  the  churches  that  are  estab- 
lished therein.  We  pray  for  all  schools  and  academies  and  colleges.  We 
pray  that  they  may  send  forth  a  light  that  shall  drive  away  darkness  and 
superstition.  We  pray  for  the  neglected,  for  the  ignorant,  for  those  that 
are  struggling  toward  newly  created  manhood.  May  they  be  found,  and 
helped,  and  raised  to  the  estate  and  the  blessedness  of  Christian  manhood. 

Lookupon  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Behold  their  sufferings.  Behold  how 
men  rise  up  against  men,  and  nation  against  nation,  and  are  dashed  together 
as  the  waves  of  the  sea.  When  shall  the  storms  of  human  passion  cease  ?  Oh, 
when  shall  come  those  days  of  promised  deliverance,  those  days  of  justice 
and  of  truth  and  of  love,  which  have  been  so  long  predicted  in  thy  word,  but 
which  hang  like  the  stars  afar  off,  shining,  but  giving  no  warmth.  Lord  Jesus, 
bless  the  nations.  Pity  them,  and  let  blood  cease  to  flow.  Draw  back  thine 
hand  in  which  the  cup  of  mixture  is.  Oh !  let  the  day  of  thy  wrath  cease. 
Put  up  thy  sword,  most  merciful  One,  and  ride  forth  in  peace  upon  all  the 
earth.  And  let  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become,  at  last,  the  kingdoms  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore. 
Amen, 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  make  us  more  courageous  of  things 
that  are  right,  and  more  fearful  of  things  that  are  wrong.  Help  us  to  live 
more  for  the  things  invisible,  and  less  for  the  noisy  world  that  obtrudes 
itself  every  day  upon  our  senses.  Help  us  to  be  faithful  in  this  world.  And 
since  we  are  in  the  body,  and  upon  this  solid  earth,  and  must  know  the 
experiences  that  belong  to  human  nature,  which  thou  thyself  didst  meet, 
grant  that  we  may  be  faithful  in  all  our  duties  one  toward  another;  in  all 
our  duties  toward  the  State;  in  all  our  duties  toward  our  business  and 
toward  things  that  shall  perish  in  the  using.  Oh  !  suffer  us  not  to  be  led 
into  captivity  by  this  outward  life.  May  there  be  powers  within  and  upon 
every  one  that  shall  hold  him  in  restraint.  May  there  be  a  divine  influence 
that  shall  keep  bright  our  hope,  our  faith,  our  love,  and  our  aspirations. 
May  we  live  inwardly  for  God  and  for  Christ.  And  so  may  we  live  that,  at 
last,  when  the  body  shall  unclasp,  that  when  at  last  those  things  which  bind 
us  and  confine  us  shall  fall  away,  we  may  blossom,  and  all  heaven  rejoice 
in  the  fragrance  of  that  love  which  Christ  hath  brought  to  the  soul.  And 
to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  forever  and  forever.    Amen. 


XIV. 

Truthfulness. 


TEUTHFULNESS. 


*•  lie  not  one  to  another,  seeing  that  ye  have  put  off  the  old  man  with 
his  deeds  ;  and  have  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is  renewed  in  knowledge 
after  the  image  of  him  that  created  him." — Coiu  III.,  9, 10. 


You  will  observe  that  the  apostle  speaks  of  falsehood,  or  lying, 
as  a  trait  belonging  to  "  the  old  man,"  or  animal  nature ;  and  that  in 
the  new  character,  the  true  manhood,  which  it  was  the  purpose  of 
Christ  to  produce  in  the  world,  it  is  not  to  be  found. 

I  propose  to  speak  familiarly  to  you,  to-night,  on  the  subject  of 
IJies  and  Fcdsetioods. 

There  are  a  thousand  casuistical  questions  which  have  come  up 
for  discussion,  as  to  what  is  true  and  what  is  false,  and  as  to  what 
one  should  do  in  this  and  that  direction,  or  in  such  and  such  exigences 
— questions  that  are  not  without  interest,  and  that  it  would  be 
profitable  to  discuss ;  but  I  propose,  to-night,  not  to  speak  upon 
them,  but  to  speak  upon  the  whole  subject  of  the  eflect  of  falseness 
or  untruth  on  a  man's  character. 

The  origin  of  falsehood,  I  suppose,  in  the  first  Instance,  is  weak- 
ness. I  apprehend  that  there  is  not  a  case  in  which,  at  first  there  is 
a  natural  love  of  untruth.  I  believe  that  all  mankind  prefer  truth. 
I  believe  that  even  those  who  do  not  employ  it  prefer  it.  I  believe 
that  there  is  an  element  of  truth-loving  among  even  bad  men.  That 
people  like  lies  is  no  evidence  that  they  do  not   like  the  truth  • 

because  it  is  quite  possible  for  one  person  to  like  moral  opposites 

that  is,  to  approve  them ;  to  be  pleased  with  the  exhibition  of  them. 
In  the  animal  kingdom  we  find  that  to  weakness  is  joined,  for  self- 
protection,  a  power  of  concealment ;  a  certain  slyness,  or  cunning. 
Many  persons  are  able  to  preserve  life  in  the  presence  of  superior 
strength  only  by  the  exertion  of  some  false  appearance. 

When  we  rise  out  of  the  animal  kingdom  into  the  lower  forms  of 
human  life,  among  savages,  we  still  find  this  trait.  We  find  that 
men  habitually  seek  to  defend  themselves  from  aggression  by  the 
use  of  concealment  and  falsehoods.  By  false  representations  they 
undertake  to  gain  advantages  which  they  are  not  able  to  compass 

Sunday  Evening,  June  11,  187L  Lkssoh  :  PsA.  XXXIII.,  Htuns  (Plymouth 
CoUecUon) :  Nos.  693,  619,  657. 


276  TRUTHFULNESS. 

by  the  direct  exertion  of  their  faculties  in  a  normal  way.  This 
is  particularly  the  case  where,  among  savage  people,  oppression 
reigns.  Men  attempt  to  conceal  their  property  by  falsifying.  Where 
the  hand  of  rapine  and  violence  threaten  to  destroy  men  and  their 
households,  they  think  it  perfectly  proper  to  set  their  pursuer  upon 
a  wrong  scent  by  an  untruth,  in  order  to  save  themselves  and  those 
that  are  dear  to  them.  This  they  inherit  from  their  animal  origin; 
or,  lather,  it  is  that  j  avt  of  them  which  is  animal.  It  is,  as  it  were, 
a  part  brought  ahnj;  aiwl  iiitroc^uced  into  the  lower  foi'ms  of  human 
life  fi'oni  the  aiilnial  fciiiottiy, 

Isliall  ot  mid  itakt'  to  discuss  the  ethics  of  falsehood.  I  merely 
say  that  wliile  its  purpose,  oftentimes,  is  humane,  and  while  there  are 
many  cases  arising  undrr  circumstances  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  argue,  it  is  a  trait  which  is  developed  only  in  the  lower  forms  and 
the  lower  conditions  of  life.  That  manhood  is  very  low  which 
attempts  to  compass  its  beneficent  ends  by  the  use  of  lies. 

We  hear  much  reproach  heaped  upon  the  slaves,  or  those  that 
recently  were  slaves,  on  account  of  their  dishonesty,  and  their  ad- 
diction to  falsehood  ;  but  how  could  you  expect  anything  else  ?  Can 
you  disrobe  a  man  of  all  the  attributes  of  manhood,  and  he  stand 
and  smile,  and  take  it  contentedly  ?  Can  you  strip  a  man  of  every 
right  of  property,  and  every  right  of  citizensrhip,  and  he  not  attempt 
.  in  the  slightest  degree  to  make  compensation  to  himself  ?  Can  you 
violate  in  a  man,  organically,  every  single  moral  right  of  action,  and 
he  be  a  saint  all  the  time  in  your  presence,  and  never  make  use  of 
the  lower  attributes  of  his  nature  in  i-eprisal  ?  Why,  the  system  of 
doing  wrong  is  such  that  it  tends  to  dishonesty.  It  touches  the 
very  motive,  the  very  spring  of  the  lower  elements  of  human 
nature.  Men,  by  their  animal  instincts  attempt  to  compensate 
for  that  which  power  wrests  from  them.  And  although  there  may 
be  single  slaves  under  the  influence  of  Christian  truth,  who  will  be 
faithful,  honest,  and  true,  yet  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  have  a  mul- 
titude of  men  that  are  oppressed  yet  remain  truth-speaking  and 
honest.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things.  And  I  do  not  marvel 
that  there  is  so  much  falsifying  ;  I  only  marvel  that  there  is  so  little 
of  it. 

When  you  look  at  childhood,  you  see  that  right  over  again 
which  we  perceive  among  nations.  Children  are  but  the  beginnings 
again  of  the  human  race.  And  in  children  deceit  is  not  a  natural 
trait.  Although  some  have,  constitutionally,  a  tendency  to  use  that 
instrument  more  than  others,  yet,  in  the  main,  it  is  an  instrument 
of  weakness  and  fear.  And  to  a  large  extent  children  copy  it  from 
the  example  of  those  who  are  above  them.  The  parents  have  learned 


TEUIHFULNESS.  277 

to  employ  falsehood  skillfully  and  dexterously ;  but  the  children, 
not  liaviug  learned  so  to  use  it,  go  about  it  awkwardly,  Luiigliiio-lv ; 
and  the  parents  whip  their  children,  not  for  violating  truth  and  con- 
science, but  for  doing  the  same  things  that  they  do  with  less  skill 
than  they  do  them.  Children  attempt  to  cover  up  their  wrong- 
doing because  they  have  not  the  courage  to  face  the  punishment 
to  which  an  exposure  of  it  would  subject  them.  Their  sense  of 
justice  is  acute ;  and  yet  they  seek  to  shield  themselves  from  jus- 
tice by  evading  the  truth.  They  run  into  falsehood,  not  because 
they  love  it,  but  because  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  bear  the 
reproof  to  which  misconduct  or  mishaps  will  bring  them,  if  they 
are  found  out.  They  are  not  yet  enough  develoj^ed  to  understand 
what  is  right  or  wrong,  or  what  is  best  for  them  in  the  larger  cir- 
cuits of  life.  They  want  many  things,  they  have  great  desires,  and 
they  are  unable  to  realize  their  wishes  by  right  means ;  and  then 
they  attempt  to  compass  by  craft  and  indirection  and  falsehood  that 
which  they  cannot  obtain  legitimately.  And  why  should  they  not? 
They  see,  or  might  see,  all  society  doing  the  same  thing.  They 
merely  do  in  the  small  what  men  do  in  the  large. 

In  these  cases  the  origin  of  falsehood  is  weakness.  It  is  the  at- 
tempt to  make  up  by  the  use  of  the  lower  animal  instincts  what 
should  be  attained,  if  possessed  at  all,  by  the  reason  and  the  moral 
sentiments.  It  is  a  bad  compensation  for  supposed  deficiencies  or 
for  supposed  disqualifying  circumstances. 

At  length  men  organize  this  trait  of  falsehood  which  they  have 
learned  to  employ  incidentally,  as  an  instrument  by  which  to  sup- 
plement weakness,  or  as  a  kind  of  indirect  self-defense.  Educa- 
tion at  length  develops  it  into  a  more  positive  form.  And  then 
men  employ  it,  deliberately  and  actively  and  regularly,  to  seek 
things  that  are  evil,  or  else  to  seek  right  things  which  they  have 
not  the  strength,  or,  more  likely,  the  patience,  to  gain  by  legitimate 
means. 

I  believe  that  all  the  great  ends  of  life  are  better  gained  by  the 
use  of  the  reasoning  faculties  than  in  any  other  way.  These  faculties 
are  larger,  and  they  require  more  room  to  turn  abound  in ;  they  are 
more  far-reaching,  and  they  require  more  time  in  which  to  brino- 
forth  their  fruit;  and  men  have  not  patience  to  wait  for  them. 
All  the  great  ends  of  life,  whether  individual  or  collective,  are  bet- 
ter sought,  and  more  surely  compassed,  and  longer  held,  and  more 
really  enjoyed,  by  the  use  of  a  clear,  truthful  reason,  by  the  open 
and  direct  exertion  of  our  better  feelings,  than  in  any  other  manner. 
But  people  cannot  w^ait ;  or  they  are  not  instructed  to  believe  this. 
And  so,  men  in  business,  in  professions,  in  all  the  pursuits  of  life,  are 


278  TE  UTHFULNESS. 

constantly  endeavoring  to  achieve  great  ends  in  this  world  by  the 
use  of  specious  appearances,  by  indirection,  by  cunning,  by  fraud, 
by  falsehood. 

Now,  it  is  not  a  question  of  mere  right  and  wrong  that  I  wish 
to  argue  to-night ;  it  is  not  a  question  of  whether  this  falsifying  is 
a  sin  against  God  or  not.  We  all  know  that  it  is.  I  propose  to 
discuss  the  question  of  the  results  which  it  works  upon  charac- 
ter. What  sort  of  men  does  lying  make  ?  What  is  the  effect  of  it 
upon  a  man's  moral  constitution,  and  upon  his  manhood  ?  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  what  is  the  effect  of  holding  one's  self  responsible 
for  the  truth,  all  the  time,  and  always  ?  What  influence  has  it  in 
producing  a  manly  character  ? 

If  a  man  takes  powder  in  his  hand,  and  touches  it  off,  there  is 
the  question  whether  he  has  a  right  to  do  it,  or  whether  it  is  wrong 
for  him  to  do  it.  And  then  there  is  another  question — namely, 
What,  without  any  moral  consideration,  will  that  powder  do  to  the 
man's  skin,  and  to  his  muscles  ?  It  will  burn  them.  It  will  shrink 
them.  It  will  incapacitate  them,  and  so  will  cripple  his  hand.  It 
is  this  constitutional  result  that  I  wish  to  look  into  to-night.  Not 
the  question,  which,  before  God  goes  with  our  general  accountabil- 
ity, but  this  larger  question  :  What  does  insincerity,  or  falseness  do 
to  the  man  who  uses  it  ?  What  do  truth,  frankness,  candor,  sim- 
plicity, directness,  do  to  a  man  ?  What  is  the  effect  on  character, 
respectively,  of  the  one  element  or  the  other  ?  These  elements  are 
character-making.  Truth  and  falsehood  are  like  food  in  digestion. 
Good  food  makes  good  blood,  good  muscle,  good  bone,  good  bodily 
strength.  Bad  food,  on  the  other  hand,  vitiates  the  secretions,  and 
makes  all  parts  of  the  animal  economy  weak.  I  hold  that  truth  is 
the  bread  of  a  noble  manhood ;  that  lies  are  the  bad  food  that  car- 
ries disease  with  it  everywhere  through  the  whole  economy ;  and 
that  no  man  who  is  building  character  in  this  world  can  afford  to 
build  with  any  other  material  than  that  of  truthfulness,  cost 
what  it  may.  It  is  not  a  question,  either,  as  to  whether  you  can 
stand  it ;  whether  you  can  endure  the  test ;  whether  it  is  beyond 
your  exertion.  My  declaration  is  not,  that  you  cannot  have  Chris- 
tian manhood  on  any  other  basis  than  that  of  transparent  truthful- 
ness, and  that  if  you  take  a  course  of  falseness,  whether  it  be  little 
or  much,  you  cannot  help  reaping  as  you  sow.  What  I  assert  is, 
that  falsehood  vitiates  manly  character. 

In  the  first  place,  the  habit  of  falseness  tends  to  strengthen  "  the 
old  man,"  as  our  text  has  it ;  to  incline  men  to  use  and  to  rely  upon 
their  lowest  powers — their  animal  forces.  It  is  weakness  in  moral 
and  intellectual  directions,  and  strength  in  animal  directions,  as  I 


TB  UTEFUL  Is' ESS.  279 

have  already  said,  from  which  the  habit  of  untruth  springs ;  and  the 
use  of  it  is  cultivating  that  side  of  man  whicli  needs  the  least  culti- 
vation ;  which  comes  itself  to  ripeness ;  which  begins  early  and  is 
strong.  It  is  not  "  the  old  man"  which  we  need  to  develop.  It  is 
*'  the  new  man  "  created  in  righteousness  in  Christ  Jesus  that  needs 
education  and  development.  The  habit  of  using  falseness  is  an 
abandonment  of  the  larger  and  nobler  instincts  of  our  nature.  We 
will  not  employ  the  best  instruments  which  we  have  to  accomplish 
the  ends  of  life.  The  instruments  which  we  do  emj^loy  for  that 
purpose  are  the  very  worst  elements  of  our  being.  | 

This  habit  tends,  next,  to  dim,  and  to  destroy,  finally,  the  very 
sense  and  instinct  of  truth.     Men  at  first  deceive,  knowing  it ;  but 
by  the  constant  use  of  deception  they  cease  to  even  know  that  they 
are  doing  it.     Gradually  it  blinds  the  moral  sense.     And  it  is  in  this 
direction  that  great  lies  are  less  harmful  than  little  ones.  Men  think 
that  a  great  black  lie  is  very  culpable.     I  suppose  it  is.     But  when 
an  armorer  wishes,  by  scouring,  to  cut  the  very  surface  of  metal 
down,  what  does  he  do  ?    Take  a  bar  of  iron  and  rub  it  ?     No ;  he 
takes  emery.     Its  particles  are  as  small  as  a  pin's  point ;  and  these 
he  puts  on ;  and  by  scouring  he  cuts  down  the  surface — takes  off  the 
enamel.     You  think  that  a  great  lie  is  a  great  sin,  and  a  great  shame 
to  a  man  ;  but  after  all,  these  little  lies  are  more  dangerous,  because 
there  are  so  many  of  them ;  and  because  each  one  of  them  is  dia- 
mond-pointed.    And  these  little  petty  untruths  which  are  so  small 
that  you  do  not  notice  them,  and  so  numerous  that  you  cannot  esti- 
mate them,  are  the  ones  that  take  off"  the  very  enamel  of  the  moral 
sense — cut  away  its  surface.     And  men  become  so  accustomed  to  it, 
that  they  do  not  recognize  that  they  are  putting  things  in  false 
lights,  when,  by  word,  by  deed,  by  indirections,  by  exaggerations, 
by  shifting  the  emphasis,  by  various  dynamical  means,  they  pi-esent 
things,  not  as  they  see  them,  but  as  they  want  to  see  them.     This 
phantasmagoric  process  by  which  men  are  throwing  false  lights  upon 
action  and  motive  ;  upon  what  is  happening  and  going  to  happen ; 
the  ten  thousand  little  modes  by  which  men  are  seeking  to  pervert 
things,  and  make  them  seem  different  from  what  they  really  are;  the 
petty  falsenesses  to  which  men  resort  in  order  that  they  may  realize 
their  vain  ambitions  in  life — these  are  pernicious  and  demoralizing 
in  the  extreme.     And  the  habit  of  employing  them  wears  the  char- 
acter more  than  a  great  rousing  lie  told  six  times  a  year  would  do. 
Yet  there  are  men  who,  if  they  were  convicted  of  falsehood  in  a  great 
transaction,  would  lose  their  character  forever.      Their  neighbors 
would  say  of  them,  *'  We  can  not  trust  such  men  as  they  are,"  And 
those  very  persons  who  say  they  would  not  trust  them,  do  not  hesi- 


280  TBriBFULNESS. 

tate  to  indulge  themselves  in  five  million  petty  falsehoods,  little 
midges  of  lies,  in  the  course  cf  the  year.  A  lion  is  to  be  dreaded,  to 
be  sure;  but  deliver  me  from  those  blood-sucking  insects  which 
make  me  smart  and  suffer  1  A  single  mosquito  is  not  much ;  but  a 
multitude  of  them,  myriads  of  them,  amount  to  a  great  deal.  And 
it  is  this  falseness  in  little  things  that  tends  to  dim,  to  obscure,  to 
almost  obliterate,  a  sense  of  truth.  There  are  men  who  have  almost 
entirely  lost  their  sense  of  proportion,  their  appreciation  of  magni- 
tude, and  their  understanding  of  the  connection  between  cause  and 
effect.  They  look  at  everything  in  the  light  of  what  they  want,  so 
much  that  they  think  that  is  true  which  they  desire  to  have  true. 

So  that  not  only  does  the  use  of  falsehood  strengthen  and  culti- 
vate the  lower  nature,  but  it  tends,  from  the  beginning,  and  all 
through  life,  to  obscure  and  obliterate  the  moral  sense,  which  is  one 
of  the  great  characteristic  elements  of  manhood,  as  distinguished 
from  animaWiood. 

There  are  three  points  in  which  we  are  different  from  animals. 
No  animal  has  imagination :  man  has.  No  animal  has  a  sense  of 
right  and  wrong :  man  has.  No  animal  laughs,  or  has  the  sense  of 
humor:  man  does  and  has.  But  moral  sense  marks  the  difference 
between  man  and  the  animal  more  than  anything  else.  This  is  that 
which,  being  destroyed,  takes  the  foundation  out  from  under  man- 
hood. 

Then  the  habit  of  using  falseness  lowers  the  standard  of  honor, 
and  of  those  sensibilities  thaL  make  character  noble  and  large.  In 
all  literatures — in  modern  literature  certainly — honor,  manlinesp 
very  much  esteemed.  I  know  that  in  early  days  falsehoods  fo. 
patriotic  purpose,  falsehoods  in  war,  where  warriors  deceived  eac* 
other  for  the  sake  of  victory,  were  rather  praised.  I  know  that  there 
are  some  nations  of  Europe  in  which  falsehood  has  been  very  much 
admired.  In  one  of  Macaulay's  most  original  essays,  he  analyzes 
Othello,  and  says  that  if  that  play  had  been  written  in  Italy,  the 
people  would  have  gone  off  in  sympathy,  not  with  Othello,  but  with 
the  scoundrel  lago.  Othello  would,  in  Italy,  have  been  thought  to 
be  a  great,  honest  blunderhead,  straightforward  because  he  did 
not  know  any  better  than  to  be  straightforward.  "  But,  ah  !" 
Macaulay  tells  us  the  Italians  would  have  said,  "  lago  is  a  shrewd 
man,  a  good  manager,  a  cunning,  dexterous  rival,  a  splendid  fellow !" 
lie  was  shrewd,  cunning  and  dexterous ;  but  he  was  not  a  model  of 
manhood.  The  character  of  the  people  there  had  become  so  vitiated 
that  they  had  learned  to  love  untruth,  and  had  learned  to  rank  it  among 
manly  qualities.  But  I  think  this  was  exceptional ;  for  I  do  not  be- 
i:^.-^  tJiat  this  can  be  said  of  that  noble  people  now.     T  t>oi;-   - 


TBUTHFULNHSS.  281 

there  has  a  process  of  renovation  and  growth  beeen  going  on  among 
them,  and  that  the  age  of  falsehood  in  that  country  has  largely- 
passed  away.  That  was  the  old  Italian  character,  rather  than  the 
present  one.  The  Spanish  character,  too,  has  had  certain  periods  of 
being  vitiated  by  a  tendency  to  falsehood.  But  in  all  the  Germanic 
races  the  sense  of  truth  has  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  indispensa- 
ble elements  of  true  manhood.  At  no  time  among  them  could  a  man 
be  su^jposed  to  be  noble  where  honor  did  not  carry  in  it  a  necessity 
for  truth-speaking.  The  ideal  man,  according  to  their  standard,  was 
one  who  would  die  rather  than  falsify  his  word,  or  speak  an  untruth. 
A  knight  of  honor  was  a  man  who  held  his  word  to  be  above  every- 
thing.  There  is  nothing  like  that ;  and  all  the  world  have  admired  it. 

Now,  the  habit  of  using  petty  falsehoods,  minor  untruths,  little 
lies  of  all  sorts,  in  conversation,  in  business,  and  in  the  various  ways 
of  life,  lowers  the  standard  of  honor,  or  takes  honor  away  from  men. 
That  is  the  reason  why  there  is  so  little  honor  in  the  world.  There 
is  very  little  of  it.  When  men  speak  about  honor  they  mean  a  kind  of 
worldly  conscience.  That  is  not  a  substitute  for  morjil  sense,  but  it 
is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  I  wish  there  was  more  of  it. 

This  habit  also  weakens  the  faith  of  men  in  men.  One  of  the 
great  preservatives  of  society,  one  of  the  things  which  preserves  the 
individual,  the  household,  and  communities,  and  makes  them  useful, 
and  renders  them  helpful  one  to  another,  is  that  men  have  faith 
in  men.  But  just  so  soon  as  it  comes  to  be  understood  that  men  in- 
dulge in  untruth,  people  instantly  flee  away  from  them. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  observe,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  how  these 
things  come  about.  There  are  many  men  whose  word  in  business  we 
do  not  think  of  believing  unless  we  have  collateral  evidence,  but  whose 
word  in  the  household  we  believe  without  hesitation.  They  pacify 
their  conscience  in  the  family.  There  they  adhere  strictly  to  the  truth. 
They  govern  themselves  by  diiferent  rules  in  different  places.  There 
are  many  men  who  believe  it  would  be  most  disgraceful  as  gentlemen 
not  to  speak  the  truth,  but  who  think  it  is  not  disgraceful  to  indulge 
in  falsehood  as  business  men.  They  say  that  business  has  its  sap- 
pointed  customs,  and  they  act  accordingly.  In  the  strife  of  business 
with  some  men  we  are  obliged  to  put  ourselves  on  our  guard.  If  they 
make  a  statement,  we  feel  it  necessary  to  sift  it  before  we  can  place 
any  reliance  upon  it.  And  it  is  only  when  we  have  gone  to  one  and 
another  and  found  out  that  it  is  correct,  that  we  accept  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  some  men  whose  statement  in  business  we  take 
as  law,  without  verifying  it.  Tliere  they  are  scrupulously  honest. 
Their  pride  lies  in  the  direction  of  truthfulness  in  business.  There 
they  hold  themselves  to  a  high  standard  of  truth-speaking.    But  out 


282  TE  UTffFULNESS. 

of  business,  and  among  their  companions,  they  are  more  lax.  There 
they  do  not  hold  themselves  subject  to  the  same  rigid  rules.  And 
so  we  learn  to  judge  them  according  to  their  standard. 

Now,  when,  in  a  community,  men  are  not  to  be  taken  at  their 
word ;  when  men's  words  and  deeds  are  deceptive ;  when,  if  a  man 
presents  a  piece  of  work,  his  presenting  it  is  no  guarantee  that  it  is 
good ;  when  the  brand  does  not  carry  conviction  of  honesty  and  of 
truth — under  such  circumstances,  not  only  is  there  mischief  done  to 
the  persons  deceived  and  the  authors  of  the  deception,  but  there  is  a 
temdeucy  to  lessen  the  hold  of  man  on  man,  and  the  confidence  be- 
tween man  and  man,  throughout  that  community.  It  is  a  disin- 
tegrating tendency ;  it  separates  men,  and  they  come  to  be  like 
grains  of  sand  which,  though  they  may  lie  in  close  proximity  to 
each  other,  are  not  joined  together.  Whereas,  society  requires  that 
men  should  be  united  like  the  links  of  a  chain,  which  are  welded 
one  around  another.  Faith  being  lost  in  men  generally,  society  is 
wounded  fatally,  and  cannot  stand. 

Lack  of  faith  is  disastrous  to  the  life  of  a  community  or  a  nation. 
I  do  not  believe  that  there  can  be  anything  like  a  successful  govern- 
ment for  the  people  by  the  people  in  a  country  where  persons  are 
accustomed  universally  to  be  indifferent  to  the  truth.  I  do  not  mean 
by  this  that  a  republican  government  cannot  stand  in  a  nation  whei*e 
people  tell  lies.  Such  a  government  has  Stood  many  years  in  just 
such  a  nation.  But  in  a  nation  where  the  people  are  so  morally 
deteriorated  that  truth  is  generally  disregarded,  I  do  not  believe 
that  self-government  can  be  maintained. 

I  have  great  faith  that  wherever  the  Germanic  races  are,  there 
will  be  a  great  training  of  men  to  love  and  to  speak  the  truth. 
But  not  so  with  the  Romanic  races.  France  cannot  be  republic. 
Why  ?  Because  the  very  feeling  of  truth  down  at  the  bottom  of 
its  people  is  wanting.  There  are  a  thousand  excellent  traits  in 
the  French  people,  both  of  stock  and  of  education ;  but  they  have 
not  the  element  of  simple  manly  truth.  Let  a  man  go  among  the 
peasantry  of  France,  and  he  sees  a  thousand  things  which  make 
him  admire  them  much  more  than  he  can  admire  the  rude  and 
rugged  German,  or  the  boorish,  lower-class  Englishman  ;  but  there 
is  among  the  Germans  and  the  Englishmen  a  kind  of  robust  honor 
about  truth  which  you  do  not  find  in  France.  You  will  not  find 
it  in  Spain.  The  people  there  are  lousy  with  lying  !  In  Italy,  in 
S'pain,  and  in  France,  republican  governments  will  wait  long.  They 
will  be  held  up  by  adventitious  influences  until  they  can  be  edu- 
cated into  truth,  into  faith  of  each  other,  and  into  reliableness,  or 
else  they  will  go  down.     What  is  necessary  to  their  maintenance  is 


TRUTHFULNESS.  283 

that  the  people  shall  he  taught  to  speak  the  truth.  If  you  ask  me 
what  is  necessary  to  a  permanent  government  in  France,  I  reply, 
Education  of  the  people  in  honesty. 

Why  has  the  English  government  maintained  itself  with  so  loose 
a  system  of  laws,  without  a  written  constitution,  and  apparently 
with  the  elements  of  perpetual  change  in  it?  Because,  with  all  her 
faults  (and  being  her  descendants  we  know  that  she  has  many  of 
them),  there  is  a  certain  reliableness  in  the  English  character.  There 
is  a  truth-element  in  it.  They  love  truth.  And  why  are  the  Ger- 
manic races,  which  have  been  separated  one  from  another,  coming 
more  and  more  to  be  one  ?  Why,  when  they  have  been  ground 
by  dissensions  and  conflicts  almost  to  dust,  have  they  been  able  to 
recuperate,  and  lay  stronger  foundations,  until  they  have  come  to  a 
majesty  of  power?  It  is  because  there  was  an  inherent  truth-ele- 
ment among  them.  Not  that  they,  too,  have  not  many  faults ;  but, 
after  all,  they  are  relatively  higher  in  the  moral  scale  than  any  of 
the  surrounding  nations. 

Where  there  is  a  sense  of  honesty  and  of  truth  you  find  quali- 
ties on  which  you  can  build  self-govei-nment ;  but  without  a  sense 
of  truth  and  honesty  you  cannot  build  any  government  except  that 
which  comes  from  the  iron  rod  of  power.  Wherever  men  make  up 
their  minds  to  lie  and  cheat,  they  are  food  for  tyrants  ;  and  if  they 
want  to  be  self-governing  they  must  have  that  manhood  which  car- 
ries truth  and  honesty  for  its  basis.  The  habit  of  looseness  and 
carelessness  and  untruth  imposes  burdens  on  society  that  no  nation 
can  well  bear.  I  suppose  that  if  you  were  to  see  an  old  warrior 
ao-ain  in  our  times,  cumbered  with  his  vast  defensive  armor — his 
breast-plate,  his  greaves,  his  back-piece,  his  ponderous  shield,  his 
solid  spear,  his  weighty  sword — you  would  laugh  him  to  scorn,  and 
say,  "Why,  he  spends  more  than  half  his  strength  in  carrying  his 
armor !"  That  is  just  the  condition  in  which  society  is  walking  to- 
day. The  cunning,  the  lies,  the  cheatings,  the  dishonesties  iu  busi- 
ness and  society,  are  such  that  every  store  has  to  be  built  with 
thicker  walls,  stronger  locks,  and  bolts,  and  bars,  and  chains,  than 
would  otherwise  be  necessary ;  and  there  is  need  of  more  watchmen 
and  policemen ;  and  all  the  .apparatus  of  government  is  doubled  and 
trebled  and  quadrupled.  A  multitude  of  extra  appliances  are  re- 
quired to  fight  against  the  simple  tendency  to  dishonesty  and'  un- 
truth. Teach  men  to  speak  the  truth  and  to  deal  honestly  with 
each  other,  and  society  may  dispossess  itsel-f  of  more  than  half  the 
weights  and  burdens  that  are  sinking  it  like  a  water-logged  ship. 
Men  that  are  set  to  watch  other   men ;    shackles ;   balances ;    the 


284  TBUTEFULNES8. 

elaborateness  of  business ;  the  minute  arrangements  that  have  every- 
where to  be  made,  and  that  imply  depravity,  if  not  actual  dishonesty 
— these  are  the  things,  after  all,  which  make  business  heavy.  Busi- 
ness would  be  comparatively  easy  and  light  if  it  were  divested  of 
these  hindrances.  Men  in  society  go  mailed,  and  all  parts  of  busi- 
ness are  made  cumbrous,  like  vast  wagons  on  rough  roads,  half  as 
heavy  as  the  loads  which  they  carry,  because  men  are  not  honest. 

How  simple  it  would  be  if  a  man's  word  were  as  good  as  his 
bond ;  if  we  never  had  to  weigh  it,  and  sift  it,  and  see  one  man,  and 
another  man,  and  another,  and  inquire  about  it,  and  find  out  by  the 
hardest  whether  it  was  true  or  not !  If  men's  statements  could  be 
relied  upon,  and  men  could  trust  each  other,  what  an  impetus  would 
be  given  to  the  world's  progress  !  We  talk  of  the  immense  pi'ogress 
which  the  world  is  making  by  railroads  skillfully  constructed,  by 
ships  navigated  by  steam-power,  and  by  lightning,  which,  being 
harnessed,  carries  knowledge  throughout  all  the  earth.  Undoubt- 
edly these  things  are  doing  very  much  toward  carrying  the  race  up 
in  civilization ;  but  if  you  could  invent  a  process  by  which  the  hu- 
man race  could  be  made  truthful  and  honest,  it  would  make  the 
world  move  ten  thousand  times  faster  than  it  now  does  under  the 
influence  of  these  forces.  The  great  want  of  society  to-day,  is  the 
habit  of  adhering  to  absolute  truth  and  reliable  honesty.  Those 
are  the  qualities  which  we  need  above  all  others.  It  is  in  them  that 
society  and  the  individual  are  weakest. 

If  these  general  views  are  correct,  no  other  battle  is  harder  for  a 
young  man  and  a  young  woman  who  are  beginning  in  life,  and  who 
mean  to  build  a  truly  noble  character,  than  that  which  they  will  be 
called  upon  to  wage  against  falsehood.  One  of  the  first,  one  of  the 
most  constant,  and  one  of  the  most  diflicult  things  that  they  will 
have  to  do,  is  to  maintain  transparent  simplicity  and  truthfulness. 
I  do  not  say  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  avoid  glaring,  malicious  false- 
hoods ;  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  abstain  from  using 
falsehood  as  an  instrument  by  which  to  accomplish  your  ends ;  but 
I  do  say  that  to  pass  through  the  customs  of  society,  its  complai- 
sance^ its  flatteries,  its  white  lies,  and  its  thousand  little  permis- 
sions, and  come  out  unscathed,  is  not  easy.  I  do  say  that  to  pass 
through  business  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  conducted,  and  keep 
your  garments  white,  and  maintain  a  pure  character,  requires 
the  utmost  endeavor.  There  must  be  an  education  in  this  regard. 
No  matter  how  patriotic  a  man  is  who  becomes  a  soldier,  he  is 
awkward  at  first ;  and  if  he  would  perform  his  duty  gracefully  and 
well,  he  must  learn  to  do  it  by  assiduous  drill.     And  so  it  is  with 


TllUTEPTJLNESS.  285 

men  who  aspire  after  a  true  Christian  manhood.  For  the  most  part, 
every  ncigh)»orhood  is  but  a  mere  drill-ground.  And  I  advertise 
you  that  when  a  man  sets  out  to  build  his  character  on  a  higher 
pattern  than  the  animal  man — according  to  that  higher  and  nobler 
model,  the  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus — one  of  the  most  difficult  things 
that  he  will  meet  with  will  be  the  duty  of  being  truthful  and  honest 
in  all  that  he  says  and  does.  There  are  very  few  men  who  have  the 
moral  courage  to  speak  the  truth  right  straight  along ;  there  are  very 
few  men  who  are  able  to  adhere  to  the  truth  in  act,  and  word,  and 
thought,  and  feeling. 

We  talk  about  great  moral  attainments.  One  of  the  gi-eatest 
moral  attainments  that  one  could  make  would  be  to  become  uniform 
in  transparent  truthfulness  and  real  guilelessness  of  soul.  There- 
fore we  know  what  is  meant  when  it  is  declared  that  if  a  man  bridle 
his  own  tongue  he  is  a  perfect  man.  That  is  to  say,  after  a  man  has 
arrived  at  that  degree  of  self-control  that  he  can  bridle  his  tongue, 
not  making  it  an  instrument  of  falsehood,  but  an  instrument  of  truth, 
there  will  be  nothing  else  that  will  not  be  easy  to  him. 

This  element  of  truth,  absolute,  uniform,  habitual,  characteristic, 
will  also  introduce  an  element  of  reconstruction  into  the  character  in 
other  directions.  In  other  words,  speaking  the  truth  is  not  simply 
that  you  avoid,  falsifying.  If  you'  made  up  your  mind  that  you 
would  always  speak  the  truth,  you  would  find,  sooner  or  later,  that 
there  were  other  things  besides  mere  truth-speaking  involved  in  that 
determination.  There  are  a  thousand  things  which  a  man  permits 
himself  to  think  and  feel  and  do,  of  which  he  says,  "  I  can  cover 
them  up  ; "  but  the  moment  a  man  feels,  "  I  am  bound  to  tell  the 
truth  at  all  hazards,  and  to  be  transparent  as  crystal,"  that  moment 
he  says,  "  I  cannot  afford  to  be  otherwise  than  right  and  true  and 
noble."  In  addition  to  the  element  of  truth,  it  introduces  a  higher 
standard  of  character  and  virtue,  that  before  one  has  scarcely 
thought  of  cultivating.  States  of  mind  which,  though  admirable, 
men  are  liable  to  think  of  as  moral  accomplishments  rather  than  in- 
dispensable duties,  come  to  be  estimated  at  their  true  value.  There 
is  introduced  the  element  of  reconstruction,  and  power  and  beauty 
are  developed  throughout  the  whole  character. 

The  Quakers  (not  alone,  but  significantly)  have  made  simplicity 
and  truth-speaking  a  point  in  their  economy.  In  any  large  body  of 
men,  some  will  come  near  to  the  standard  which  is  set  up,  and  some 
will  fall  away  from  it ;  and  undoubtedly  it  is  the  case  with  this  per- 
Buasion  that  many  fall  far  below  their  prescribed  rules  of  conduct 
and  life ;  but  my  impression  is  that  as  a  body  of  men  there  prevails 
amon<^  them,  on  an  average,  more  truth-speaking  than  is  to  be  found 


286  TB  UTEFULNESS. 

among  other  religious  bodies.  They  have  made  a  point  of  that. 
And  look  at  the  result.  What  quietness  is  there  among  them ! 
What  reliableness  !  What  manliness  !  What  an  element  of  noble- 
ness 1  What  depth  of  character !  How  many  of  their  cares  in 
life  are  alleviated  !  How  many  of  the  ruggednesses  and  bolts  and 
jolts  are  removed  from  their  path  !  I  think  this  habit,  as  they  have 
practiced  it,  has  yielded  such  fruit  as  to  encourage  men  to  make 
truth-speaking  a  prime  element  in  their  character. 

A  man  that  is  a  Christian  is  not  necessarily  a  man  that  is  rap- 
turous in  devotion.  He  may  be  that,  he  ought  to  be,  and  it  is  un- 
fortunate if  he  is  not ;  but  rapture  is  ndt  the  characteristic  feature  of 
Christianity.  A  man  that  prays  well,  and  sings  well,  and  goes 
booming  up  like  a  rocket  every  once  in  a  while — that  is  not  what  we 
mean  by  a  Christian.  We  mean  a  man  who  is  a  new  creature  in 
Christ  Jesus.  We  mean  a  man  who  has  constructed  his  character 
out  of  moral  elements,  and  not  out  of  animal.  That  man  in  whom 
simplicity  and  truth  and  honesty  are  found,  is  like  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, built  of  precious  stones  through  every  single  layer  of  his  char- 
acter. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  business,  and  of  the  organic  deceits 
that  are  wrought  into  it.  I  feel  more  and  more  that  the  necessity 
for  truth-speaking  in  individual  men  must  address  itself  sooner  or 
later  to  the  world.  Look  at  the  deceits  which  are  practiced  in  busi- 
ness life.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  a  vague  and  general  aspersion  on 
all  men  that  are  engaged  in  business — for  there  are  men  in  business 
who  are  honest ;  but  if  you  take  any  single  department  of  business, 
and  observe  how  it  is  carried  on,  you  will  see  that  the  temptations 
of  society  tend  to  introduce  into  it  the  element  of  falseness.  Things 
are  not  as  they  seem.  The  carpet  is  not  what  it  looks  to  be.  It  is 
■uot  what  it  was  designed  that  people  should  think  it  was.  The 
colors  are  bright,  and  the  surface  is  good,  that  people  may  believe 
that  the  article  itself  is  good ;  but  it  comes  far  short  of  being  as 
good  as  it  has  the  appearance  of  being.  And  the  effect  of  such  de- 
ception is  to  lower  the  quality  of  textile  fabrics.  All  articles 
wrought  in  wood  and  leather  and  metal  are  deteriorated  in  quality 
from  the  same  cause.  The  same  is  true  of  houses,  and  the  furniture 
which  is  put  into  them.  And  adulterations  may  be  traced  to  the 
same  source.  Every  particle  of  food  that  a  man  buys,  almost,  is 
adulterated.  So  is  the  medicine  that  he  takes.  The  food  sickens  us ; 
and  then  the  medicine  lies  to  us,  and  cheats  the  blood.  There  is  an 
element  of  fraud  that  goes  through  whatever  is  offered  for  sale  in 
the  market.  The  anvil  has  learned  to  lie  ;  the  loom  has  learned  to 
lie  J  silk  has  learned  to  liej  cotton  has  learned  to  liej  flax  has 


TRUTHFULNESS.  287 

learned  to  lie  ;  hemp  has  learned  to  lie.  Every  element  in  society- 
pretends  to  be  one  thing,  and  on  the  surface  seems  to  be  that  thing, 
while  at  the  bottom  it  is  another  thing. 

"Well,"  you  say,  "  it  is  universally  understood."  No,  it  is  not. 
If  it  was  there  would  not  be  so  much  profit  in  it.  It  is  the  attempt 
of  the  more  shrewd  to  take  advantage  of  the  less  shrewd.  It  is  the 
attempt  of  the  strong  to  oppress  the  weak.  It  is  the  old  robber 
^ baron  in  his  castle  descending,  after  men  have  planted  their  crops, 
and  stealing  them.  It  is  the  pirate  on  the  sea  pouncing  upon  the 
merchantman  that  is  laden  with  treasures  from  abroad,  and  taking 
possession  of  them.  It  is  the  grasping  king  that  appropriates  the 
earnings  of  his  subjects.  Organic  dishonesty,  structural  lies  in 
goods,  are  modes  of  robbing  the  poor — for  there  is  where  the  evil 
comes  at  last.  The  tendency  of  wrong  things  is  to  work  out  at  thj 
bottom.  The  dregs  of  dishonesty  naturally  settle  down.  And  the 
poor  are  fleeced  by  those  who  are  cunninger  than  they.  The  weak 
are  oppressed  by  the  strong.  Those  that  are  lower  in  life  are  rob- 
bed by  those  that  are  higher.  And  there  must  in  this  direction  be  a 
reformation.     There  must  be  a  public  conscience. 

I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  men  have  not  a  right  to  make 
different  grades  of  goods.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  coffee 
shall  be  all  coffee  and  not  part  chiccory.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say 
that  chiccory  shall  be  all  chiccory,  and  not  part  burned  biscuits  that 
have  been  sent  four  times  across  the  sea.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say 
that  there  shall  not  be  adulterations  in  commerce.  But  if  a  thin<«- 
passes  for  a  first-class  article,  it  ought  to  be  first-class  ;  if  it  passes 
for  second-class,  it  ought  to  be  second-class  ;  and  if  it  passes  for 
third-class  it  ought  to  be  third-class.  It  is  proper  enough  that  there 
should  be  various  qualities  of  things  ;  but  everything  ought  to  be 
what  it  seems,  and  ought  to  seem  what  it  is. 

Honesty  in  the  man,  and  honesty  in  the  work — tliat  is  what  must 
be  secured  in  society,  or  society  will  never  be  Christianized.  You 
may  send  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen.  A  man  that  gives  time  and 
thought  and  means  for  that  which  is  below  the  horizon  where  he 
never  sees,  is  actuated  by  a  true  benevolence,  and  manifests  a  real 
faith.  A  church  or  a  community  that  works  for  what  it  does  not 
see,  is  a  nobler  and  broader  church  or  community  than  one  that  only 
works  for  the  things  which  appeal  to  the  senses.  I  believe  in  send- 
ing the  Gospel  abroad  ;  but  I  have  little  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  a 
Gospel  that  is  only  superficially  extended.  The  Gospel,  to  be  of 
much  service  in  regenerating  the  world,  must  be  so  administered 
that  it  shall  come  out  in  business,  in  all  forms  of  industry,  every- 
where in  life. 


288  TBUTHFULNE^S. 

No  man  need  ever  expect  the  millennium,  the  perfect  day,  to 
come,  until  truth,  in  the  man,  and  in  all  that  comes  forth  from  the 
man,  is  characteristic  of  the  race. 

This  is  a  matter  which  I  feel  ought  to  be  much  more  insisted 
upon  by  the  pulpit.  I  feel  it  more  because  I  have  my  ministry 
largely  among  those  who  are  beginning  life.  On  Sunday  nights 
especially,  there  come  hither  many  such.  But  not  too  many. 
I  thank  God  for  the  privilege  of  speaking  to  so  many  that  are  young. 
And  I  feel  that  I  cannot  do  my  duty  to  them  unless  I  insist  more 
upon  these  fundamental  qualities.  What  are  called  "  minor  "  morals 
axQ  foundation  morals.  "  Truth  in  the  inward  parts"  is  requisite  to 
all  true  Christianity.  If  you  think  that  you  are  Christians  while 
your  life  is  honey-combed  by  little  deceptions  and  falsehoods  and 
dishonesties,  then  your  spiritual  experiences  are  a  delusion  and  a 
snare.  There  is  no  virtue  nor  safety  in  substitutes  or  plasters  that 
cover  up  and  hide  from  you  the  essential  qualities  of  your  character. 
When  you  have  truth  at  the  bottom  of  your  nature,  and  it  permeates 
your  whole  life,  then  your  conscience  mounts  up,  and  your  hope  and 
faith  flame  forth,  and  you  have  the  basis  for  the  highest  experiences. 
Then  you  have  that  which  is  worth  having,  and  for  which  you  may 
bless  God.  But  nothing  can  take  the  place  of  truth-speaking  and 
honesty.  If  you  rely  upon  anything  else  in  their  stead,  it  will  mis- 
lead you  and  destroy  you.  And  while  the  pulpit  ought  not  less, 
perhaps,  to  preach  doctrine,  it  ought  to  raise  its  voice  more  in 
respect  to  the  old-fashioned,  much-needed  virtues  of  honesty,  truth, 
honor,  industry  and  fidelity.  These  are  what  we  need.  Men  need 
more  rights,  without  any  doubt,  and  they  will  get  them  when  they 
perform  more  duties.     What  men  want  just  now  is  duties,  duties^ 

DUTIES  ! 

This  is  a  work,  I  remark  finally,  that  most  especially  appeals  to 
households  and  to  mothers.  For  mothers  are  God's  chief  educators 
in  this  world.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  must  go  back  again  to  the 
old-fashioned  times.  We  have  advantages  in  the  household  now,  that 
were  not  enjoyed  then,  in  many  ways  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  in 
the  old-fashioned  times  there  was  more  faithful  instruction  that 
passed  from  the  mother's  heart  to  the  child's  ear  than  there  is  at 
present.  We  are  too  apt  to  shift  our  duties,  in  this  respect,  upon  the 
Sabbath-school.  Many  responsibilites  are  thrown  upon  persons  and 
organizations  outside  of  the  family  which  ought  to  rest  upon  the 
shoulders  of  parents.  Parents  should  remember  that  it  is  their  duty 
now,  as  it  ever  has  been,  to  educate  their  children,  not  only  in 
regard  to  secular  things,  but  in  regard  to  things  moral  and  spiritual, 
as  well.     And  the  duty  will  never  be  removed  from  parents  of  in- 


TBUTEFULNE88.  289 

stilling  into  the  minds  of  their  children  the  ideas  of  that  which  is 
right  and  pure  and  true,  and  of  arming  them  to  go  out  into  that  life 
whose  course  is  largely  a  conflict  of  dishonesty  and  truth-speakino-.  I 
do  not  say  that  the  habit  of  being  truthful  and  honest  is  piety  ;  but 
I  venture  to  say  that  any  young  man  or  young  woman  who  is  edu- 
cated at  home  so  thoroughly  that  the  habit  of  honesty  and  truth- 
speaking  are  formed,  there,  will,  when  he  or  she  goesiout  into  life, 
stand  nearer  the  kingdom  of  God  than  those  persons  Avho  have  not 
been  thus  educated.  Truth  is  a  foundation  on  which  the  divine 
Spirit  is  more  apt  to  work  than  any  other.  This  is  the  need  of  the 
household,  the  need  of  the  community,  and  the  need  of  our  times — 
that  manliness  which  is  indicative  of  the  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus, 
out  of  which  is  cast  all  illusion  of  the  outside,  and  whatever  is  bor- 
rowed from  the  animal ;  and  into  which  is  gathered  all  that  is  pure 
and  true  and  lovely  and  of  good  report. 


TRAYER   BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  do  not  draw  near  to  thee,  our  Father,  as  if  thou  wert  ignorant  of  our 
want.  We  are  drawn  by  that  of  thee  wliich  is  in  us.  Thou  kuowest  what 
things  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask.  Neither  art  thou  one  that  is  reluc- 
tant to  give,  and  that  needs  persuasion.  Thou  dost  exceeding  abundantly- 
more  than  we  ask  or  think.  The  riches  of  thy  grace  transcend  our  thought. 
We  draw  near  to  thee  because  thou  hast  made  it  pleasant  for  children  to 
speak  to  their  parents.  We  have  learned  that  the  things  whicj  we  receive 
are  a  double  blessing  if  we  ask  them  of  those  who  love  us.  Not  only  have 
they  a  value  of  their  own,  but  they  come  perfumea  with  the  thoughts  of 
those  who  give  them.  Thou  hast  joined  thyself  to  thy  gifts,  and  in  taking 
them  we  take  thee.  And  how  much  more  art  ^hou  than  bread,  or  raiment! 
How  much  more  glorious  art  tliou  han  the  sun,  or  than  all  things  which 
the  sun  brings  forth— its  children  of  beauty  !  All  things  are  made  nobler  and 
better  when  the  light  of  thy  countenance  falls  upon  them,  and  when  we 
take  them  as  from  the  outstretched  hand  of  Love  I 

How  blessed  is  the  thought  that  thou  thinkes.  of  us  not  only  when  we 
think  of  thee,  but  always!  We  rest  in  the  consciousness  that  no  harm  <jau 
befall  us  if  thou  art  with  us  and  thinking  of  us.  If  God  be  for  us,  who  can 
be  against  us  ? 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  lift  us  up  into  the  region  of  these  thoughts— 
where  they  abide  and  dwell ;  and  there  may  we  have  rest  and  peace  with 
God— that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  we  may  not  be  disturbed,  and  that  the  cur- 
rents of  desire  which  have  agitated  us  may  cease  to  have  domination.  May 
we  have  a  trustful  and  restful  feeling  in  thy  providence.  May  we  belie7e 
that  we  are  more  to  thee  than  we  can  be  one  to  another.  May  we  realize 
that  there  is  no  mother  nor  father  that  can  love  their  children  as  God  loves 
us.  Thy  life  given  for  us,  and  thy  suffering  borne  for  us,  are  pledges  of  thy 
faithfulness  in  loving;  and  why  should  we  bear  burdens  since  there  is  infi- 
nite, everlasting  strength  to  bear  them  for  us  ?    Why  should  we  be  weighed 


290  TRUTHFULNESS. 

down  with  care  when  we  are  commanded  to  cast  all  our  care  upon  God. 
Oh !  help  us  to  bear  our  burdens  and  cares.  May  we  have  joy,  rather  than 
sadness.  May  we  have  songs  in  the  night.  May  we  be  cheered  in  darkness. 
May  we  be  comforted  in  affliction.  May  we  be  strengthened  in  weakness. 
May  we  ever  more  feel  the  hand  of  God  around  about  us ;  so  that  when  our 
own  strength  and  wisdom  fail  we  may  lean  evermore  upon  thee.  We  com- 
mit ourselves  to  thy  guidance.  We  say,  Thy  will  be  done.  Though  it  cost 
much  suffering,  nevertheless  it  is  better.  And  we  desire,  O  God,  that  thou 
shouldst  mark  our  path  by  thy  judgment,  and  not  by  ours ;  by  thy  infinite 
wisdom,  and  not  by  our  mutable  longings.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  do  that 
which  is  best  for  us  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to-night  to 
every  one  in  thy  presence  as  he  severally  needs.  Thou  knowest  the  way ; 
thou  knowest  the  secret  life;  thou  knowest  where  the  pain-giving  thorn 
resides;  thou  knowest  who  bear  heavy  and  grievous  burdens.  There  is 
perfect  freedom  with  thee.  Naked  and  open  are  we  before  Him  with  whom 
we  have  to  do. 

Grant,  to-night,  that  every  one  in  thy  presence  may  have  release  for  the 
hour.  Before  thee  may  they  stand  disembarrassed.  Before  thee  may  all 
stand  rejoicing.  Meet  every  want.  Whisper  consolation  and  acceptance  to 
every  heart. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  who  are  gathered  together ; 
all  that  are  in  the  midst  of  life;  all  that  are  experiencing  its  trials,  its  temp- 
tations, its  duties,  its  various  imperfections.  Strengthen  thou  them,  that 
they  may  be  able  to  live  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  in  the  love  of  men.  Raise 
up  m  aur  midst  a  generation  to  serve  thee  with  more  valor,  and  with 
more  power,  and  with  more  success  than  have  been  given  to  us. 

We  thank  thee  for  all  the  mercies  wbich  thou  hast  granted  to  our  several 
households.  We  thank  thee  for  so  much  consolation  as  we  have  had  in  afflic- 
tion. We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  mixed  chastisements  with  so  much  that 
is  sweet  and  comforting. 

We  commend  the  rising  generation  to  thee.  Be  near  to  the  young.  Grant 
that  they  may  grow  up,  from  the  beginning,  to  a  life  of  rectitude.  Be  with 
those  who  are  just  embarking  upon  life.  May  they  not  mistake  the  true 
path.  There  are  ways  which  seem  right  unto  men,  the  ends  whereof  are 
death.  Grant  that  every  one  may  discern  the  right  way,  unseduced,  and 
un  terrified. 

May  every  one  in  thy  presence  be  able  to  walk  in  comeliness;  infidelity; 
in  honesty;  in  truth  ;  in  hope  and  love  of  God;  and  in  the  faith  and  e>  pecta- 
tion  of  immortality  through  Jesus  Christ. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  multiply  in  our  midst  the  offices  of  kindness, 
and  of  forl)eai'ance,  and  of  gentleness.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt 
render  more  and  more  fruitful  those  that  labor  in  word  and  doctrine,  and 
rear  up  around  about  them  the  evidences  of  their  fidelity.  We  pray  for  all 
thy  churches,  and  for  all  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  throughout 
our  land,  and  for  all  that  teach  their  fellow-men  throughout  the  world. 
And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  hasten  that  appointed  day,  so  long  in  coming, 
when  all  men  shall  know  thee,  from  the  areatest  unto  the  least. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  evermore. 
Amen. 


XV. 

Heart  Conviction. 


Gracious  Father,  smile  upon  us  this  morning,  notwithstanding  the  cloud 
and  the  storm.  Thou  art  the  God  of  mercy  and  of  love,  and  behind  these 
frowns  is  brightness  and  warmth.  Even  when  thou  art  abroad  in  the  earth 
doing  terrible  things,  in  thy  right  hand  is  hidden  mercy;  and  those  dost  ex- 
ecute thy  judgments  in  the  earth  that  righteousness  may  prevail.  We 
rejoice  that  thou  beholdest  goodness,  and  that  thou  art  working  for 
eternal  purity,  and  that  thou  wilt  unto  the  end,  as  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting  thou  art  on  the  side  of  purity  and  of  joy,  and  will  cause  them  to 
flourish  in  all  thy  kingdom.  Let  thy  kingdom  come,  and  let  thy  will  be 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  And  grant  unto  us,  this  day,  such  mani- 
festations of  thyself,  such  icfluences  from  thine  heart,  that  we  shall  know 
that  we  are  children  brought  home;  that  we  have  come  to  our  Father's 
house.  And  so  may  we,  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath,  have  rest,  not  only,  but 
have  a  foretaste  of  the  hope  and  the  joy  that  await  us  in  the  other  life.  We 
ask  it  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ.    Amen. 


HEART-CONVICTION. 


'•  For  with  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness."— Rom.  x.,  10. 


I  DO  not  say  that  the  design  of  the  Apostle  was  to  discriminate 
between  the  convictions  of  the  feelings  and  the  convictions  of  the 
intellect ;  and  yet,  this  is  involved  in  the  declaration.  The  heart 
stands,  in  the  Bible,  for  feeling — particularly  for  affections  and 
moral  emotions ;  and  the  declaration  here,  which  is  literally  true — 
man  believeth  with  the  heart — I  shall  employ  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  that  it  is  not  intellectual  apprehension,  that  it  is  not  con- 
viction by  the  mere  force  of  fact  and  reasoning,  that  determines 
men's  faiths  and  beliefs. 

It  is  a  prevalent  error  that  believing  is  purely  an  intellectual 
phenomenon,  and  that  only  facts  and  arguments  are  required  to  pro- 
duce conviction.  It  is  supposed  that  when  facts  are  clearly  stated, 
and  when  upon  them,  or  upon  other  suitable  grounds,  arguments  are 
honestly  and  wisely  constructed,  the  understanding  ought  to  yield, 
like  a  beleaguered  city — that  it  has  been  fairly  taken  when  it  has 
been  breached  with  argument  and  with  facts.  And  yet,  nothing  is 
more  certain,  and  nothing  is  more  a  subject  of  remark,  that  if  you 

adopt  the  old  phrase. 

"  A  man  convinced  against  his  will 
Is  of  the  same  opinion  still." 

Men  hear  satisfying  arguments  all  their  lives  long,  and  cannot 
get  away  from  them ;  and  in  words  they  assent  to  the  truth  ;  and 
yet  they  do  not  believe  one  word  of  the"  truth.  Nor  can  they  tell 
why.  Sometimes  it  is  said  to  be  because  they  are  perverse  and 
willful.  They  frequently  think  that  it  is  not  so — that  they  desire  to 
feel  as  others  feel,  and  to  see  as  others  see.  But  a  conviction  of 
the  truth  does  not  come  to  them  from  preaching. 

Many  suppose  that  the  whole  duty  of  a  teacher  is  fulfilled  in 
delivering  his  messages  ;  that  when  he  has  put  them  into  an  intel- 
lectual form,  when  his  propositions  are  marshaled  and  placed  in 
regular  and  logical  sequence,  they  are  the  best  assailants  of  men. 
And  yet,  it  is  certainly  true  that  many  men  are  more   fruitful  as 

Sunday  Morning,   June  18,   1871.      Lesson  :   Col.  I.,    Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Nos.  104, 112,  21. 


294  HEAET-CONVICTION. 

preacliers  who  have  the  least  reasoning  and  the  least  logic  in  their 
preaching.  It  is  true  that  some  men,  all  their  lives  long,  labor  with 
a  barren  field,  whereas,  other  men  with  not  half  their  equipage  nor 
half  their  munitions,  and  in  more  unfavorable  fields,  bring  forth 
abundant  fruit  of  convictions  and  of  conversions. 

There  seems,  therefore,  to  be  something  wrong  in  the  theory  of 
conviction — as  to  what  it  is,  and  what  produces  it.  It  is  genferally 
held  that  feeling  has  no  proper  place  in  the  prodiiction  of  a  con- 
viction of  the  truth,  but  that  it  should  be  excluded  ;  that  the  mind 
should  be  kej)t  colorless  and  cold  as  the  glass  through  which  the 
scientist  examines  phenomena.  And  there  are  many  who  feel  that 
every  single  appeal  to  the  emotions,  whether  by  illustration  or 
otherwise,  is  the  introduction  of  just  so  much  of  a  disturbing  force 
in  the  sacred  process  of  ratiocination. 

Now,  in  the  lowest  category  of  truth — that  of  material  facts 
and  events — it  is  true  that  the  senses  and  the  perceptive  intellect 
do  perceive  truth  without  emotion.  In  regard  to  the  examination 
of  mere  material  facts,  and  the  measuring  of  those  facts  according 
to  any  principle  of  measurement  or  classification  which  may  be 
adopted,  it  is  true  that  the  less  emotion  there  is,  and  the  more  pure 
perception  there  is,  the  more  likely  men  will  be  to  come  at  the 
truth. 

But  this  is  true  only  in  regard  to  the  lowest  forms  oi  facts 
of  matter.  The  relation  of  facts  of  matter  to  each  other  develops 
or  discloses  a  higher  kind  of  truth.  The  relation  of  things  to 
things,  as  of  color  to  color,  or  of  number  to  number,  or  of  mag- 
nitude to  magnitude — these  are  real ;  but  they  never  can  be  per- 
ceived. They  are  thought  of.  They  exist  in  the  reflective  intellect. 
They  are  therefore  called  truths  of  an  abstract  character,  or  phil- 
osophic truths. 

In  regard  to  these  truths,  also,  it  is  certain  that  the  less  emotion 
there  is,  the  more  undistui-bed  will  be  that  process  by  which,  facts 
having  been  observed  and  coordinated,  the  relations  of  those  facts, 
or  the  deductions  of  them,  will  be  secured. 

In  the  lower  category  of  truth,  then — that  of  facts  of  matter 
and  their  relations  to  each  other — the  emotions  are  a  disturbing 
force  in  reasoning. 

Thus  far  we  have  only  considered  the  not  nnimportant,  and  yet 
the  least  important  kinds  of  truths. 

Rising  above  all  other  forms  of  organization,  comes  man  him- 
self ;  and  while  he  stands  upon  the  material  globe,  and  is  composite 
of  material  facts,  he  is  also  an  originating  center,  organized  with 
immense  complexity.     He  has  a  force  within  him  that  not  simply 


HEABT-CONVICTION.  295 

grows,  but  thinks,  wills,  believes,  loves,  hates,  rejoices,  sorrows. 
There  are  desires,  and  contests,  and  beliefs  in  man,  originating  in 
himself,  that  matter  never  knows. 

See  a  phenomenon  !  When  the  phosphorescent  light  shines  out, 
is  that  a  })henomenon  ?  And  is  it  not  also  a  phenomenon  when  a 
man's  miud  thinks  ?  When  a  branch  divides,  and  then  divides  again, 
and  again  divides,  joint  from  joint,  and  part  from  part,  is  that  a 
scientific  fact  ?  And  is  it  not  also  a  scientific  fact  when  the  mind  of  a 
man  now  thinks,  and  now  wills,  and  now  feels,  and  in  feeling  expe- 
riences, first  one  kind  of  emotion,  and  then  another  kind  ?  Are  the 
things  that  are  going  on  outside  of  a  man,  nature  ?  and  are  not  the 
things  which  are  going  on  inside  of  a  man  just  as  much  nature  ? 
If  the  lily  that  opens  its  silver  cup  on  the  tranquil  lake  is  a  phenom- 
enon in  nature,  and  is  to  be  classified  in  botany  ;  if  the  fruit  that 
hangs  pendant  on  the  bough  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  science,  are 
not  these  inspirations  and  emotions,  which  grow  upon  a  nobler  stalk, 
and  have  a  sweeter  blossom,  and  a  richer  fruit,  also  worthy  of  a 
place  in  science  ?  Are  they  not  parts  of  nature,  though  they  are 
evanescent,  and  changing,  and  rej)etitious  ?  Are  they  not  just  as 
actually  facts  ?  If  the  lightning  flashes  out  from  the  East  and 
across  the  horizon,  that  is  a  fact ;  and  if  thought  flashes  out  from 
the  mind,  is  not  that  a  fact  just  as  important  ?  N'ay,  higher  in 
rank,  and  greater  in  importance  are  those  truths  which  are  evolved 
from  man's  nature  according  to  the  appropriate  laws  of  evolution. 

In  man  truth  rises  to  a  higher  level  than  it  attains  in  matter  out- 
side of  man.  It  is  no  longer  the  mere  relation  of  matter  to  matter. 
It  becomes  moral,  afiectional,  aesthetic.  That  is,  it  is  the  truth  of 
duty,  it  is  the  truth  of  feeling,  it  is  the  truth  of  beauty.  Right 
or  wrong,  good  or  bad,  true  or  false,  homely  or  beautiful,  lovable  or 
repulsive,  refined  or  vulgar — these  are  words,  not  for  shadows,  but 
for  things.  An  emotion  which  takes  on  a  distinct  form  ;  an  intel- 
lectual experience  which  comes  to  a  real  shape — these  are  things^ 
though  they  wear  no  body — though  they  have  no  continuing  form. 
They  are  not  only  things  really,  but  they  are  superior  things,  stand- 
ing higher  than  lower  organized  matter  which  can  be  traced  with  the 
senses,  and  which  therefore  can  be  more  conveniently  handled  by 
our  lower  reason.  These  truths,  and  hundreds  of  others,  are  just 
as  real  entities  as  weight,  as  dimension,  as  number,  as  distance,  as 
color,  or  as  any  other  quality  in  matter. 

Such  truth  is  of  transcendent  importance  to  the  individual  ;  be- 
cause what  we  call  character  is  shaped  more  by  these  interior  ex- 
periences and  facts  than  by  exterior  influences,  in  many  respects.    It 


296  HEABT-CONVICTION. 

is  important  to  the  family.  It  is  the  very  law  of  development  and 
of  conservation  in  the  household  and  in  society.  Moral  truths,  and 
social  truths,  and  civil  truths — these  are  higher  organized ;  and  on 
these  it  is  that  society  is  built ;  and  on  these  society  conducts  all  its 
processes. 

It  is  then,  on  this  higher  form  of  truth — moral,  social,  af- 
fectional,  aesthetic  truth — that  conviction  depends,  far  more  than 
on  the  presentation  of  reasons  or  dynamic  qualities. 

If  you  attempt  to  convince  men  that  their  course  is  right 
or  wrong,  you  cannot  do  it  as  you  would  convince  a  grocer  that  his 
pound  was  under  weight  or  over  weight  in  the  scales.  There  is  no 
such  measurable  power.  You  are  to  address  the  feeling  of  right  or 
wrong  in  men.  It  is  generally  complex.  It  is  an  emotion  of  com- 
placency or  displacency,  as  the  old  writers  would  have  said,  in  one, 
two  or  more  feelings  in  the  soul.  And  no  man  is  convinced  in 
regard  to  any  moral  truth,  until  both  the  intellect  and  a  certain 
number  of  the  feelings  are  put  at  rest,  in  respect  to  it.  It  may  ad- 
dress itself,  first,  perhaps  to  the  intellect;  but  it  must  go  deeper, — to 
the  experience  of  moral  feeling  which  is  behind  it.  What  is  just,  is 
not  apprehended  by  reason  of  an  intellectual  statement  of  what  it  is, 
but  from  a  peculiar  experience  of  conscience.  A  thing  is  beautiful, 
not  according  to  rules  and  statements,  but  according  to  an  aesthetic 
experience  in  the  man  himself.  And  in  regard  to  the  higher  truths, 
an  emotion  is  evidence — feeling  is  reason.  You  cannot  make  a  man 
laugh  because  he  ought  to  laugh.  You  may  analyze  a  jest,  or  a  flash 
of  wit,  and  present  it  to  a  man,  saying,  "  Here  are  the  elements  of 
mirth  ;  and  these  being  presented  to  you  as  I  now  present  them, 
if  you  are  a  rational  being  you  will  accept  the  statement  of  them, 
and  laugh  ;"  but  nobody  laughs  so.  People  laugh  first,  and  after- 
wards think  why  they  laughed.  The  feeling  of  mirth  is  first  ex- 
cited ;  and  afterwards  the  intellect  analyzes  that  which  produced  the 
laughter.  It  converts  into  an  idea  that  which  was  first  an  emotion 
or  an  experience.  • 

And  so  in  regard  to  every  element  of  beauty  or  art,  a  man  is 
not  convinced  of  it  by  ratiocination.  He  is  convinced  of  it  by  his 
feeling  first ;  and  then  he  brings  in  the  understanding  to  corroborate 
the  emotion,  to  heighten  it,  and  to  enlarge  it. 

And  that  which  is  true  of  art,  is  true  of  music,  of  eloquence,  not 
only,  but  in  the  still  higher  range  of  moral  conduct.  True  reason- 
ing is  that  which  makes  a  man/ee^  that  what  you  say  to  him  is  true. 
I  do  not  care  what  the  reasoning  is,  emotion  is  the  means  of  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  statement.    A  feeling  of  truth  is  an  argument,  though 


RE  ART  CON  VIOTION  297 

it  may  be  a  lame  one.  If  a  man  says  in  himself.  "  I  feel,  I  know,  that 
such  and  such  a  thing  is  true,"  that  feeling  is  legitimate  evidence  to 
that  man  that  the  thing  is  true. 

People  say,  "  You  ought  to  require  men  to  present  evidence  of  a 
good  rational  conviction,  and  then  they  will  stand  more  permanently 
on  the  gi-ound  of  belief.  To  address  the  feelings  is  to  create  a 
sudden  transient  conviction  which  may  not  have  any  permanence." 
There  is  some  truth  in  that  ;  but,  nevertheless,  a  man  may  attempt 
to  produce  a  conviction  by  an  intellectual  process,  and  yet  not 
produce  that  which  amounts  to  a  settled  belief.  Many  men  have 
been  bombarded  all  their  life,  and  have  not  been  taken,  because  it 
was  attempted  to  convince  them  purely  by  the  intellect,  the  aesthetic 
and  emotive  elements  being  left  out  of  the  question.  Hundreds  of 
men  have  all  their  life  long  fought  against  the  doctrine  of  divine 
sovereignty,  as  presented  in  a  purely  intellectual  proj^osition,  have 
heai'd  it  stated  over  and  over  again,  and  have  tried  to  believe  it, 
but  never  did  believe  it  until  at  length  there  came  a  presentation  of 
it  emotively,  and  imaginatively,  when  by  some  illustration  there  was 
kindled  in  their  mind  a  sense  of  the  sweetness  and  beauty  of  Father- 
hood in  God.  And  then,  when  once  a  conviction  of  that  Fatherhood 
had  entered  into  their  soul,  there  came  a  desire  that  One  possessed 
of  such  an  attribute  should  be  siapreme,  and  have  liberty  to  do  as  he 
pleased.  And  instantly  there  was  a  conviction  produced  which  all 
the  reasoning  in  the  world  would  not  have  made.  And  were  not 
these  men  soundly  convinced  because  they  were  convinced  through 
their  taste  and  aftection  ?  Were  they  not  convinced,  because  it  was 
an  illustration  rather  than  an  argument  that  appealed  to  them? 
That  which  makes  a  man  feel  that  truth  is  truth,  that  right  is  right, 
is  to  him  evidence.  That  which  makes  a  man  feel  inside,  "  This  is 
true,"  is  evidence  for  him.  And  though  such  evidence  is  more  or 
less  imperfect,  it  is  evidence. 

Therefore  evidence  is  sometimes  intellectual,  as  respects  the  lower 
forms  of  truth ;  but  as  you  go  up  in  the  importance  of  truth,  the  ev- 
idence of  it  becomes  less  and  less  purely  intellectual  and  factual.  It 
becomes  more  and  more  emotional.  It  is  taste,  it  is  fear,  it  is  hope, 
it  is  conscience,  it  is  esthetic  inspiration,  that  determine  whether 
men  will  take  this,  that  or  the  other  view  of  truth.  So  that  the  mag- 
azine of  evidence  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  lower  forms  of  reasoning, 
but  in  appeals  to  the  moral  consciousness,  to  the  conscience,  to  the 
emotions.  And  then,  when  men  are  alive  or  sensitive,  and  there  is 
the  presentation  of  a  proposition  or  a  quality  of  truth  to  the  feelings, 
there  will  be  found  in  them  a  response  that  convinces  them,  and 
settles  the  conviction. 


298  EEAllT-CONYICTION. 

This  is  to  be  followed  up  afterward  by  intellectual  instruction, 
and  by  a  process  of  investigation,  to  see  whether  the  conviction  is 
founded  on  good  reasons,  or  on  reasons  not  loosely  stated.  And  then 
they  will  not  only  be  convinced,  but  will  be  permanently  convinced, 
and  convicted,  and  converted,  in  so  far  as  belief  is  concerned. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  a  small  nor  an  accidental  truth  that  is  de- 
clared when  it  is  said  that  with  the  heart  man  helieveth  unto  right- 
eousness ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  convictions  which  go  to  pro- 
duce what  are  considered  a  moral  and  religious  life,  are  convictions 
which  spring  mainly  from  the  emotions,  from  the  moral  sentiments, 
from  the  taste,  from  the  inspirations  of  feeling,  and  are  not  purely 
intellectual,  dogmatic  convictions — though  these  are  not,  in  their 
place,  to  be  despised.  It  is  not  dogma  that  anybody  should  object 
to  :  it  is  despotic  dogma.  It  is  not  dogma  that  men  should  repu- 
diate :  it  is  dogma  making  believe  that  it  is  the  only  form  which 
truth  can  assume.  The  hateful  thing  about  it  is  that  dogmas,  which 
are  a  reduction  of  truth  to  intellectual  statements  of  facts,  or  ab- 
stract truths,  have  usually  assumed  that  they  were  the  highest  forms 
of  evidence,  and  of  the  most  authority ;  whereas  universal  experience 
shows,  that  while  they  are  beneficial,  they  are  practically  of  second- 
ary importance  in  producing  living  belief  in  regard  to  the  highest 
truth. 

From  the  ideas  enumerated  in  these  views  it  is,  that  we  see  how 
men  who  are  substantially  of  the  same  feelings,  run  generically  to- 
ward the  same  general  convictions.  In  any  age  the  feelings  and  the 
affections  of  the  age  have  much  to  do  with  the  adoption  of  the  phi- 
losophies and  the  politics  of  that  age.  If  men  are  living  by  their 
lower  nature,  they  will  tend  toward  wantonness  of  intellectual  phi- 
losophies; they  will  incline  to  the  things  that  relax  restraint,  that 
break  down  responsibility,  and  untone  the  conscience.'^  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  good  men,  pure  men,  men  under  the  influence  of 
a  high  degree  of  moral  culture,  in  any  age,  will  always  tend  to  unity, 
on  the  ground  of  virtue  and  self-restraint,  and  responsibility,  and 
refinement.  And  in  any  age  the  feeling  that  belongs  to  men  in 
masses,  largely  determines  the  direction  which  they  take  in  intel- 
lectual, religious  and  political  philosophy. 

Men  may  differ  very  largely  in  regard  to  moral  and  religious 
truth,  and  yet  be  honest ;  and  to  a  degree  both  sides  that  differ  may 
be  true.  One  man  may  be  an  Arminian — honestly  and  thoroughly 
an  Arminian ;  another  man  may  be  a  Calvinist — honestly  and  thor- 
oughly a  Calvinist ;  they  may  stand  apparently  at  antipodes ;  and 
yet  they  may  both  be  right. 


EEAET-CONVICTION.  299 

What !  is  it  possible  for  men  to  stand  on  two  sides  of  a  common 
truth,  ajid  yet  be  riglit  ?  No,  not  if  cither  of  them  is  wholly  rio-ht ; 
not  if  either  of  them  has  in  himself  the  perfection  of  tfuth  •  but  no 
man  ever  sees  the  whole  truth.  Nobody  ever  sees  truths  except  in 
fragments.  A  truth  is  so  much  and  so  large  that  one  man  may  be  on 
one  side,  and  see  his  share  of  it,  and  another  may  be  on  the  other 
side,  and  see  his  share  of  it ;  and  both  of  them  may  be  right,  thouo-h 
both  of  them  are  imperfect.  They  may  be  partialists,  each  of  them 
is  a  partialist ;  but  their  views  of  that  truth  may  not  be  false. 

Where,  for  instance,  a  man  has  a  sense  of  government ;  where, 
as  a  certain  school  would  say,  self-esteem  and  the  feeling  of  authority 
are  largely  developed  in  a  man,  he  will  sympathize  with  the  ruling 
force,  and  will  be  a  Calvinist.  Where,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man 
has  benevolence  very  large,  and  his  social  feelings  are  in  the  ascend- 
ency, he  will  sympathize  with  the  governed,  and  not  with  the  gov- 
erning power ;  and  he  will  be  an  Arminian.  And  both  of  them  will 
be  right ;  because  there  is  an  element  of  truth  in  both  vicAvs.  There 
are  few  who  are  large  enough  to  take  the  whole  of  one  side  and  the 
whole  of  the  other  side  of  the  truth.  One  takes  one  element,  and 
runs  away  with  it,  and  organizes  around  it ;  and  another  takes  an- 
other element,  and  runs  away  with  that,  and  organizes  around  it. 
And  both  of  them  have  something  of  the  truth,  though  neither  of 
them  has  the  whole  of  it.  The  largeness  of  the  truth  is  lost  in  the 
case  of  each  ;  but  each  is  sincere  in  his.  system  of  theology.  Each 
has  a  philosophy  of  religion  wiiich  is  different  from  that  of  the  other 
and  each  is  true  to  himself  and  his  convictions,  and  each  does  o-ood 
in  one  way  or  another.  Each  is  part  right  and  part  wrong.  They 
are  both  partialists. 

We  each  take  a  mouthful  of  truth  out  of  the  whole ;  but  none  of 
us  takes  the  whole  of  it.  So  that  men  may  be  generically  united 
but  specifically  different  in  their  judgments  of  truth. 

Take  a  familiar  instance.  In  a  given  neighborhood  are  twenty 
husbandmen.  They  may  all  be  good  husbandmen.  They  may  all 
carry  on  farming  profitably.  Tliey  may  all  be  said  to  have  a  wise 
method  of  treating  the  soil  and  of  treating  crops.  And  yet,  every 
one  of  them  will  treat  his  soil  differently  from  every  other,  and  every 
one  of  them  will  handle  his  crops  diflx'rently  from  every  other.  But 
generically  they  agree,  though  specifically  they  vary.  They  are 
united  in  the  general  results  which  they  are  aiming  to  work  out ;  but 
they  are  not  united  in  the  special  methods  by  which  they  are  to  be 
brought  about.  And  yet  nobody  thinks  of  putting  them  by  the  ears 
because  specifically  they  disagree,  Avhen  generically  they  agree. 

It  is  not  probable  that  in  any  street  or  neighborhood  any  two 


300  EJEAET-CONVIGTION. 

householders  keep  house  alike.  They  may  all  be  respectable  people, 
they  may  all  be  good  housekeepers,  they  may  all  be  bringing  up  their 
families  Avell ;  and  yet,  they  all  differ  in  their  modes  of  doing  these 
things.  They  rise  at  different  hours,  and  have  their  meals  at  different 
hours,  and  spread  their  tables  differently,  and  cook  their  food  differ- 
ently, and  bring  up  their  children  differently,  and  manage  their  ser- 
vants differently,  as  you  would  learn,  if  you  could  hear  them  talk 
about  each  other.  Nothing  would  be  more  instructive  than  to  hear 
the  housekeepers  in  a  neighborhood  discuss  each  other's  economy. 
Each  is  careful  in  some  direction,  and  profuse  in  another ;  and  each 
criticizes  the  others'  profuseness.  But  economy  is  a  question  of  final 
results,  and  not  of  special  methods.  All  through  different  house- 
holds you  find  disagreement  in  specifics  and  agreement  in  generics.  T 

Now,  throughout  the  woi'ld,  churches  are  artificial  households. 
And  many  of  them  are  good  households.  There  are  sects,  scores  of 
them,  as  there  ought  to  be ;  and  though  they  specifically  differ,  they 
are  generically  promoting  good  morals,  inspiring  spiritual  appetites, 
and  lifting  men  up  from  the  plane  of  the  passions  to  the  plane  of  the 
moral  sentiments.  They  are  teaching  men  to  live,  not  by  sight,  but 
by  faith.  And  one  does  it  in  one  way,  and  another  does  it  another 
way.  One  does  it  by  ordinances  and  symbols,  another  by  silence 
and  by  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit,  and  another  by  intellectual  dis- 
quisitions. And  so  there  is  some  general  unity  between  them,  though 
th-ey  are  running  in  their  own  ruts  and  channels. 

A  man's  feeling  has  much  to  do  with  what  he  believes ;  and  it  is 
from  what  is  inside  of  a  man,  and  not  from  what  is  outside  of  him, 
that  we  are  to  determine  what  the  truth  is.  There  is  belonging  to 
every  man  a  personal  element,  which  to  a  very  great  degree  has  been 
overlooked,  but  which  is  of  vital  importance — certainly  to  the  cliai*- 
itable  judgments  Avhich  we  foi-m  of  men. 

We  know  that  in  scientific  processes — that  is,  in  dealing  with 
the  lower  forms  of  truth — different  men  are  equipped  not  only  with 
different  powers  of  eye,  and  different  sensibilities  of  ear,  and  dif- 
ferent aptitudes  of  nature,  but  that  a  distinct  judgment  is  taken  of 
these  things.  In  measuring  transits,  in  attempting  to  perform  the 
more  delicate  operations  of  making  observations  in  astronomy,  it  is 
found  that  one  eye  is  more  sensitive  than  another;  that  one  eye 
acts  quicker  and  sees  quicker  than  another  when  a  planet  touches 
the  limb  of  another  planet.  And  these  individual  peculiarities  are 
reduced  to  mathematical  expression.  Astronomical  observers  have 
what  are  called  their  "  personal  equations  " ;  and  in  every  observa- 
tory in  Europe  you  will  find  that  allowance  is  made  for  the  pecu- 
liarities of  persons  in  the  matter  of  seeing,  and  that  their  personal 


EEABT-  CO  N  VICTION.  30 1 

equations  are  used  to  correct  and  regulate  the  results  of  their  ob- 
servations. 

Now,  moral  astronomy  has  some  need  of  personal  equations — 
though  they  have  never  been  applied,  and  though  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  apply  thera  ;  for  what  raen  believe  depends  very  much 
on  how  they  are  made.  And  it  is  absurd  to  talk  about  people  be- 
lieving alike.  I  believe  as  you  do  ?  No.  Nobody  believes  as  I 
do,  because  nobody  is  made  as  I  am.  The  elements  which  enter 
into  the  composition  of  the  human  mind  are  not  mixed  in  precisely 
the  same  proportions  in  any  two  persons.  No  two  men  have 
the  same  sensibility  or  the  same  training.  No  two  men  are  pre- 
cisely alike.  All  have  the  same  faculties  ;  the  alphabet  goes  into 
everybody ;  but  the  letters — the  A  B  C's — are  put  together  differ- 
ently, and  the  words  are  spelled  with  infinite  variations  in  different 
persons.  And  not  only  are  they  in  different  proportions,  and  in  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  strength,  but  sometimes  one  predominates  and 
sometimes  another,  in  the  same  person.  Sometimes  the  moral  feel- 
ings are  first,  and  sometimes  the  social  affections,  and  sometimes 
the  intellectual  powers.  These  qualities  exist  in  different  persons 
with  infinite  variations  and  combinations.  What  a  man  sees  when 
the  truth  is  presented  to  him  depends  entirely  on  the  strength  of 
the  qualities  that  are  in  him,  on  the  proportions  in  which  they  exist, 
and  on  the  relative  degrees  of  sensibility  which  they  have  at  the 
time. 

The  impressions  which  come  to  the  consciousness  of  different 
persons  are  not  the  same.     The  impressions  which  come  to  your 
consciousness  and  mine,  if  you  could  see  and  measure  them,  would 
materially  differ.     The  character  of  men's  moral  structure  has  much 
to  do  with  determining  their  convictions.  And  the  attempt  to  make 
all  men  see  and  feel  the  same  things  is  just  as  preposterous  as  it 
would  be  to  make  the  mark  of  one  man's  foot  in  the  sand,  and  at- 
tempt to  compel  everybody  else's  foot  to  fit  that  mark  exactly. 
Stakes  have  been  driven,  flames  have  been  kindled,  racks  Jiave  been 
turned,  and  blood  has  flowed  out  by  Amazons,  in  that  which  nature 
abhors,  and  the  race  abhors,  and  God  abhors — the  attempt  to  make 
all  men  believe  the  same  things  in  the  same  way.     It  has  been 
sought  to  run  men  in  molds,  as  it  were,  so  that  they  should  come 
out  as  dollars  from  a  die.     But  men  are  made  on  the  principle  of 
infinite  and  eternally  increasing  variations.      And  beliefs,  though 
they  agree  generically,  vary  specifically — and  must  and  will  do  so. 
Truth  will  be  truth,  right  will  be  right,  goodness  will  be  goodness, 
of  course.     In  general  directions  they  are  the  same,  though  they 
differ  in  minor  points. 


302  SEAET-CONVICTIOK 

In  traveling  on  the  prairies  of  the  "West,  when  we  came  to  a 
Blough,  or  morass,  we  would  find  fifty  roads  branching  out;  and  one 
preferred  to  go  in  and  out  on  one  side ;  another  preferred  to  pass 
through,  a  few  yards  from  a  certain  point ;  another  preferred  to  cross 
at  some  other  point ;  but  I  noticed  that  the  main  idea  was,  for 
everybody  to  get  through  the  slough,  though  they  did  it  by  almost 
as  many  roads  as  there  were  travelers  across  the  prairie,  during  cer- 
tain weeks  and  months  of  the  year.  Of  course,  all  roads  were  not 
equally  easy  and  equally  good ;  there  was  a  choice  of  ways ;  but 
every  man  took  the  liberty  of  going  the  way  he  thought  the  best. 

And  so  it  is  in  respect  to  variations  of  belief.  Men  follow  their 
subjectivity.  They  follow  that  particular  form  of  belief  which 
springs  from  conviction  of  feeling  in  them.  If  human  influence  and 
power  could  have  made  men  alike,  and  kept  them  alike,  in  belief,  it 
would  have  been  done ;  but  that  was  not  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  decree.  It  seems  to  have  been  designed  that  every  man 
should  have  a  personal  experience  of  his  own ;  and  that  while  all 
should  maintain  right  directions,  and  cultivate  a  true  moral  charac- 
ter, and  be  united  generically,  they  should  specifically  not  lose  their 
individuality  or  separateness. 

This  is  the  fundamental  difference  between  Protestantism  and 
Catholicism.  Catholicism  does  not  mean  Pope,  rtor  Cardinal,  nor  this 
ceremony,  nor  that  creed.  The  question  involved  is  simply  this : 
Is  the  individual  at  liberty  to  follow  the  charter  which  he  finds  in 
himself,  or  must  he  follow  a  charter  which  is  prescribed  by  human 
authority?  Catholicism  says  that  every  man's  conscience  must 
agree  with  the  Church's  conscience.  It  says  that  there  is  a  great 
unitary  conscience,  and  that  every  man  must  be  guided  by  that. 
But  Protestantism  says  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  his  individual 
conscience.  It  holds  that  he  ought  to  instruct  it  so  that  it  shall  be 
a  fit  and  reliable  guide.  And  it  makes  every  man  responsible  for 
that  to  which  his  conscience  leads  him.  According  to  Protest- 
antism, when  it  comes  to  the  issue,  no  man  has  a  right  to  follow  any 
other  conscience  than  his  own.  And  when  a  man  says,  "  I  must  fol- 
low my  conscience,"  he  is  a  Protestant. . 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Father  Hyacinthe  when  he  waa 
here,  and  telling  him  that  he  was  a  Protestant.  He  had  just  been 
saying,  "  I  cannot  be  unfaithful  to  the  truth  as  it  has  been  delivered 
to  me."  "  Stop ! "  said  I,  "  you  are  a  Protestant,  and  out  of  the 
Church."  He  had  said  that  he  could  not  bear  to  go  out  of  the 
Church  ;  that  he  dreaded  schism,  or  heresy ;  that  it  was  like  poison 
to  him.  Nevertheless  he  was  a  Protestant.  When  a  man  says,  "  I 
must  follow  my  God  according  to  the  light  which  I  have,"  that 


EEAET-CONVICTION,  303 

moment  he  is  a  Protestant.  And  I  think  Chrisjt's  own  ideal  of  a 
man  was  a  man :  not  merely  a  member  of  the  human  family,  but 
an  organized  man. 

This  will  lead  to  many  collisions,  many  mistakes,  many  imper- 
fections. But  tell  me  of  anything  that  is  not  full  of  imperfections. 
This  world  is  not  a  perfect  sphere,  and  it  does  not  turn  out  perfect 
work.     It  is  a  world  in  which  we  are  taking  preliminary  steps. 

"  When  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be 
done  away." 

So  says  the  apostle.  He  understood,  as  well  as  anybody  else,  that 
men  are  all  jjartialists.  Paul,  the  great  theologian,  after  many  years 
of  thought,  and  visions,  and  rapturous  associations,  and  after,  to  his 
own  seeming,  having  been  lifted  up  to  the  seventh  heaven,  declared 
that  he  saw  things  fragmentarily. 

"When  that  which  is  perfect  is  come  [the  whole  of  truth],  then  that 
which  is  in  part  [the  partial  view]  shall  be  done  away." 

And  not  till  then  will  it  be  done  away. 

We  are  certain,  then,  that  truth  is  in  many  special,  minor  re- 
spects different  to  different  men.  Love,  mercy,  justice,  authority, 
responsibility,  freedom — these,  on  the  palette  of  a  man's  conscious- 
ness are  not  simple  uncompounded  colors.  They  are  made  up  of 
many  colors.  They  have  a  great  variety  of  tints.  They  differ  end- 
lessly in  their  shadings. 

There  will  be  objections  raised  to  these  views.  "  Why  pay  any 
heed,"  men  say,  "  to  facts  and  arguments,  if  belief  is  subjective,  if  it 
belongs  to  the  subject  himself,  and  arises  from  the  way  in  which  he 
is  constituted  ?"  Because,  in  many  respects  we  are  constituted 
alike — or  proximately  alike.  Though  we  vary  in  specials,  we  agree 
in  generals.  And  facts,  to  multitudes  of  men,  are  in  many  respects 
substantially  the  same.  At  any  rate,  the  general  exterior  is  the 
same.  And  although  we  may  attach  shades  of  difference  to  them, 
and  they  may  work  themselves  out  in  the  final  result,  there  are 
enough  points  of  agreement  to  make  men  cohere  ;  to  unitize  them. 

But,  "  May  not  this  view,"  it  is  asked,  "  imply  that  truth  is  vari- 
able ;  that  it  is  to  every  man  just  what  he  sees  it  to  be  ?  Is  there 
nothing  permanent  ?  Is  everything  shifting  according  to  the  imao-- 
inations  of  men  ?  Is  there  no  solid  ground  ?  Are  there  no  firm 
foundations  ?  Is  there  no  exact  truth  ?  Is  there  no  order  which  a 
man  having,  has^  and  can  stand  on,  and  be  at  rest  ?"  I  do  not  know 
of  any.  The  whole  creation  has  been  groaning  and  travailing  in 
pain  until  now,  and  never  has  found  it.  You  can  come  to  a  degree 
of  exactitude  in  respect  to  material  mensuration — in  respect  to 
gravity,  or  heights,  or  depths,  or  lengths,  or  breadths  ;  but  in  regard 
to  moral  things  the  world  has  never  more  than  approximated  com- 


'604:  EEABT-CONVICTION, 

mon  beliefs.  And  the  peculiar  traits  of  nations  and  races  and  in- 
dividuals remain ;  in  spite  of  every  argument  to  the  contrary,  in  spite 
of  prayers,  in  spite  of  all  the  influences  vi^hich  have  been  brought  to 
bear  against  it,  the  world  is  just  as  it  always  was — only  moi'e  so. 
That  is,  as  intelligence  and  knowledge  increase,  men  grow  toward 
diversity  as  fast  as  they  grow  toward  unity. 

It  is  with  truth  as  it  is  with  trees.  The  part  that  stands  in  the 
ground  is  a  solid  unit — the  trunk  ;  but  the  part  which  deals  with 
the  sun,  and  therefore  has  in  it  the  principle  of  life,  is  forever 
branching,  and  branching,  and  branching.  And  if  a  tree  hates  any- 
thing, it  is  a  straight  stalk.  It  wants  to  bend  and  turn  here  and 
there.  And  so  it  goes  on  splitting  and  dividing.  But  does  it  injure 
the  tree  ?  Does  the  fruit  gi-ow  on  the  twigs,  or  on  the  solid  part  ? 
You  know  that  it  is  found  not  on  the  unit,  but  on  the  diverging 
twigs.  The  power  of  truth  lies  in  diversity,  and  not  in  unity.  In 
great  basilar  developments,  unity ;  in  the  higher  elements,  ramifi- 
cation. 

But  it  does  not  follow  that  truth  is  a  thing  of  mere  individual 
segregation,  as  persons  have  it  nowadays.  It  is  not  simply  my 
personal  experience.  My  personal  experience  reproduces  a  certain 
amount  of  that  great  truth  which  lies  outside  of  me,  and  of  the 
race,  and  of  angels — and  that  is  God.  I  am  not  able  to  reproduce 
the  whole  of  the  truth  in  nature,  nor  of  God  in  human  kind.  The 
truth  is  complex,  and  it  transcends  the  bounds  of  the  ordinary  con- 
sciousness. 

Therefore  truth  is  stable  and  firm,  though  my  share  of  it  may  be 
but  little,  and  though  as  compared  with  another  man's  share  it  is 
mutable  and  variable.  Truth  is  a  great  substantial  entity  which 
lies  outside  of  us  all.  Our  consciousness  takes  in  but  a  part  of  it, 
and  a  changing,  mutable  part,  at  that,  but  this  does  not  void  the 
stability  of  the  unity  of  the  truth  of  the  universe. 

Is  a  man  responsible  for  his  beliefs ;  were  they  not  created  in 
him  and  for  him  ?  I  do  not  think  a  man  is  responsible  for  his  be- 
liefs; but  I  think  a  man  is  responsible  for  his  conduct.  You  can 
get  at  it  just  as  you  please.  The  heart  it  is  that  believes  unto 
righteousness.  You  are  responsible  for  being  good,  and  true,  and 
manly,  and  believing,  and  loving,  and  noble  in  every  way.  You 
are  responsible  for  results.  Every  man  is  responsible  for  being 
honest  with  himself.  A  man  is  responsible  to  this  extent — that  he 
must  keep  his  mind  clear.  If  when  I  look  at  a  color  it  is  blue  to 
me,  I  am  not  responsible  for  seeing  that  color  blue,  though  another 
man  may  see  it  green.  But  if,  the  color  being  blue  to  me,  I  look 
at  it  and  say  that  it  is  green,  I  am  responsible  for  a  violation  of 


EUAET-CONriCTTON.  305 

honesty.  Men  are  responsible  for  using  truly,  and  uncler  the  best 
conditions,  every  faculty  they  have  ;  and  Avhen  I  am  true  to  my  or- 
ganization, when  I  am  true  to  that  which  is  within  me,  I  am  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  products  of  that  which  ray  mind  sees.  Conduct 
and  character  are  results.  Believing  is  merely  a  preliminary  stage. 
It  is  a  means  to  an  end.  And  experience  shows  that  men  do  by 
different  beliefs  come  to  the  same  general  results.  That  is  to  say, 
are  there  not  men  in  the  other  churches  who  are  as  good  Christians 
as  thouo-h  they  were  Congregationalists  ?  There  are.  I  am  beholden 
to  many  Christians  of  past  generations  in  the  Roman  Church  for 
their  learning  and  piety  and  nobility.  I  see  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
saints  with  bishops'  caps  upon  their  heads.  And  are  there  not  just  as 
good  men  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  as  there  are  in  the  old 
Episcopal  Church  ?  Certainly.  And  have  there  not  been  Chris- 
tians of  the  right  stamp  from  the  days  of  John  Calvin  to  the  pres- 
ent time  in  the  old  Presbyterian  Church  ?  Unquestionably.  Are 
there  not  true  and  good  men  in  every  denomination  where  Chris- 
tianity has  been  developed  ?  Yes.  Every  man  who  is  really  God- 
fearing and  man-loving  has  that  for  which  alone  belief  has  any 
value.     The  object  of  believing  is  to  produce  goodness. 

Now,  if  from  every  diverse  point,  if  from  convictions  which  vary 
in  each  man,  one  can  reach  forth  with  his  heart,  though  it  be  small 
at  the  bottom,  and  big  at  the  sides,  and  flat  at  the  ends,  and  believe 
unto  righteousness,  that  is  enough.  The  thing  is  righteousness. 
That  is  the  fruit,  according  to  the  declaration  of  the  Master. 

When  John  sent  to  Christ,  being  discouraged  in  his  prison  life, 
saying,  "  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we  look  for  another  ?" 
in  that  same  hour  Christ  performed  many  wonderful  works ;  and 
he  said  to  the  disciples  who  had  come  from  John,  "  Go" — what  ?  tell 
John  that  this  is  my  doctrine  ?  tell  John  that  I  am  the  Messiah  ? 
tell  John  that  I  have  fulfilled  all  the  prophets  ?  tell  John  that  I  am 
co-equal  with  the  Father  ?  Not  a  word  of  it — "  Go  and  show  John 
ao-ain  those  things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see :  the  blind  receive 
their  sic^ht,  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf 
hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached 
to  them," 

It  is  as  if  he  had  said,  "  Go  tell  him  that  the  fruit  is  the  thing, 
and  that  is  enough," 

A  man  who  lives  in  a  spirit  of  love  to  God,  and  of  unfeigned 
charity  toward  his  fellow  men,  is,  under  God,  a  Christian  ;  and  that 
is  right-believing,  or  valuable  believing,  which  makes  right-living. 

But  does  not  this  undervalue  truth  ?^  Oh,  no.  If  you  ask  me 
what  is  the  likelihood  of  certain  beliefs  generating  holy  lives ;  if 


306  EJEAET- CONVICTION. 

you  aslc  if  there  are  not  some  modes  of  presenting  the  truth,  certain 
proportions,  and  certain  systematic  forms,  which  experience  deter- 
mines to  be  more  effectual  in  producing  right  characters  than 
others,  I  reply.  Yes,  I  think  there  are.  Therefore  I  think  it  more  im- 
portant that  a  man  should  believe  right,  and  not  simply  believe. 
And  that  makes  it  important  that  a  man  should  be  educated  to  be- 
lieve in  certain  views.  I  hold  that  some  forms  of  belief  are  better 
than  others,  because  some  forms  of  belief  tend  to  produce  better  re- 
sults than  others.  But,  at  the  same  time,  where  I  see  that  right  re- 
sults have  been  produced,  I  recognize  them  as  being  right,  no 
matter  what  produced  them.  The  object  of  truth  is  the  production 
of  goodness  ;  and  if  goodness  is  evolved,  that  is  the  main  thing,  no 
matter  how  it  was  produced. 

When  the  master  gives  to  a  class  a  proposition  in  Euclid,  it  may 
be  that  Euclid's  solution  is  the  best  that  can  be  given ;  nevertheless, 
if  a  scholar  does  not  take  to  that  solution,  and  gets  at  the  result  by 
some  original  development  of  thought,  the  master  accepts  it,  although 
he  may  have  taken  a  long  road,  and  an  imperfect  one,  to  come  to  it. 
If  he  solves  the  problem,  he  has  accomplished  the  thing  which  was 
to  be  done.  There  is  a  difference  between  a  long  and  a  short  road  ; 
but  if  the  long  one  carries  a  man  home  at  last,  that  is  the  main 
thing. 

Now,  of  theologies,  some  seem  to  run  on  a  level  plain,  and  the 
shortest  distances  ;  and  some  take  circuits  through  the  wilderness  or 
the  morass  ;  and  a  man  has  much  more  weariness,  and  a  great  deal 
longer  journey  if  he  takes  the  latter  than  if  he  takes  the  former; 
but  any  theology  that  takes  a  man  home  to  Heaven  is  sufficiently 
good. 

We  see  from  these  views,  if  they  are  correct,  why  it  is  that  men 
find  in  the  Bible  such  different  teachings.  It  is  because  in  going  to 
the  Bible  each  man  carries  with  him  his  peculiar  disposition  and 
taste,  and  takes  those  truths  which  are  most  in  harmony  with  his 
strongest  part. 

Did  you  ever  see  iron  separated  from  sand  by  a  magnet  ?  You 
go  and  pick  out  the  iron  with  your  hands,  guided  by  your  eyes.  You 
are  proud  of  what  you  are  pleased  to  call  your  grand  organization. 
I  hear  much  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature.  With  your  superior 
faculties  pick  out  those  particles  of  iron  if  you  can.  It  is  a  long  and 
wearisome  task,  and  is  but  imperfectly  done  at  best.  Now  take  that 
magnet — that  crooked  piece  of  iron  without  an  eye  in  its  head  by 
which  to  see — and  draw  it  through  and  through  the  sand,  and  it  will 
gather  up  every  single  particle  of  the  iron. 

Every  man's  predominant  faculty  is  a  magnet.     One  man's 


EEAET-CONVICTION.  307 

magnet  is  love ;  and  when  he  draws  it  through  the  Bible,  every  ele- 
ment that  attaches  to  the  question  of  love  sticks  to  it.  When  he 
reads  the  Bible,  he  is  no  logician  and  no  philosopher,  and  he  does 
not  care  about  reasoning ;  but  he  says,  "  Ah !  how  anybody  can 
read  the  Bible  and  not  see  that  it  is  all  love,  I  cannot  understand." 

His  neighbor  has  been  reading  the  same  Bible,  but  he  has 
gone  through  it  with  the  magnet  of  conscience,  and  there  is  nothing 
but  justice  that  sticks  to  it.  He  says,  "You  need  not  tell  me  about 
the  kingdom  of  God  being  a  kingdom  of  love  ;  it  is  a  kingdom  of 
justice,  justice,  justice."  And  he  holds  every  man  responsible  for 
exact  right  and  wrong,  "  Why,  it  is  just  as  plain  as  it  can  be,"  he 
says.  "  Nothing  but  willful  depravity,  nothing  but  total  depravity, 
could  keep  a  man  from  seeing  that  the  Bible  teaches  that  God  is  a 
God  of  justice." 

Another  man  has  a  magnet,  and  he  draws  it  through  the  Bible, 
and  says,  "  How  any  man  dare  talk  so  familiarly  of  the  Creator  is  a 
mystery  to  me !  God  is  an  awful,  awful,  awfui.  being  !"  It  is  all 
veneration  with  him.  All  through  the  Bible  he  has  found  the  ele- 
ment of  veneration. 

Another  man  has  a  magnet,  and,  smiling  and  rejoicing,  he  draws 
it  through  the  Bible  ;  and  out  comes  a  rainbow  ;  out  come  beautiful 
bunches  of  flowers  ;  out  come  dripping  clouds ;  out  comes  delightful 
music  ;  out  comes  all  that  is  bright  and  glorious  ;  and  he  says, 
"  Why,  God  is  a  God  of  beauty  !    All  through  the  Bible  "is  beauty." 

And  so  every  person  takes  the  strongest  faculty  in  himself,  and 
makes  a  magnet  of  it,  and  goes  through  the  Bible,  and  takes  out  that 
element  which  is  in  affinity  with  it. 

Well,  is  there  any  harm  in  this  ?  No,  not  if  you  understand 
that  one  takes  one  element  of  truth,  and  another  another,  and 
another  another ;  not  if  you  understand  that  one  really  does  find  in 
the  Bible  love,  and  another  justice,  and  another  beauty,  and  an- 
other veneration.  Every  one  of  these  things  can  be  found  in  the 
Bible  ;  but  nobody  takes  them  all.  Each  man  who  goes  tliere  is  a 
partialist,  and  takes  his  own  predominant  faculty,  and  draws  out 
what  naturally  adheres  to  that. 

The  reason  why  there  are  so  many  sects,  is  that  men  see  different 
sides  of  the  truth,  according  to  the  faculties  by  w^hich  they  are  con- 
trolled. There  would  not  be  so  many  sects  if  men  would  let  each 
other  alone,  and  not  insist  upon  that  part  of  the  truth  which  they 
have  discovered  being  the  only  truth;  but  man  takes  a  single  ele- 
ment of  truth,  and  attempts  to  compel  others  to  accept  that  as  the 
Bum  total  of  truth.  The  man  of  conscience  says,  "  You  shall  come 
to  my  school"  ;  and  tlie  man  of  love  says,  "  I  won't."    "  You  shall  P 


308  EEAET-CONVICTION^ 

"  I  wont  /"  "  You  SHALL !"  "  I  won't  !"  And  so  there  is  contention 
between  the  adherents  of  justice  and  benevolence  ;  and  each  one 
feels  that  it  is  of  infinite  importance  that  men  should  believe  right, 
and  says,  "  If  they  will  not  believe  right,  I  will  make  them."  That 
has  been  the  motto  of  the  Church — "  If  a  man  will  not  believe 
right,  make  him."  Men  have  been  straw,  and  priests  have  been  hus- 
bandmen, who  have  taken  them  on  the  floor  of  the  church,  and 
attempted  to  flail  them  to  orthodoxy  and  true  believing.  It  has 
been  taught  that  men  should  be  held  to  discipline  and  correct  be- 
lieving, and  not  be  allowed  to  wander  ofi"  from  the  true  faith ;  and 
they  have  been  dogmatized  and  desj^otized  over,  and  it  has  been 
attempted  to  comjDcl  them  to  believe  with  the  strongest. 

Now,  I  hold  to  liberty.  If  your  God  seems  to  be  pre-eminently 
a  God  of  justice,  I  will  not  quarrel  with  you.  Neither  shall  you 
quarrel  with  me  because  God  seems  to  me  more  a  Father  than 
a  King.  Nor  will  I  quarrel  with  another  man  to  whom  God  is  a 
God  of  beauty.  I  stand  in  the  brotherhood  of  all  those  men  each 
of  whom  has  taken  his  strongest  faculty  and  used  it  as  a  lens 
through  which  to  look  at  and  magnify  a  certain  part  of  truth,  which 
he  is  best  fitted  to  see.  I  put  my  arms  about  them,  and  say,  "  My 
brothers,  I  need  you  all.  I  need  to  have  more  of  justice,  and  more 
of  love,  and  more  of  beauty.  You  build  me  up  in  the  elements 
which  you  interpret,  and  I  will  build  you  up  in  the  elements  which 
I  interpret." 

Some  astronomers  are  studying  the  nebulffi,  some  Jupiter,  some 
Saturn,  some  the  sun,  and  so  on  ;  and  they  bring  together  all  the 
results  of  their  investigations,  and  unite  them;  and  the  sum  total 
makes  the  one  astronomy.     , 

Tlie  true  Church  is  that  which  takes  the  gifts  of  all  its  members, 
and  instead  of  quarreling  with  and  persecuting  and  treading  under 
foot  each  the  peculiar  views  of  any  other,  unites  them  as  faj-  as 
possible.  The  members  of  a  church  should  say  to  each  other,  "  You 
contribute  your  gifts  to  me,  and  I  will  contribute  mine  to  you  in  re- 
turn. And  such  a  church,  and  such  church-members,  are  the  best 
interpretation  of  the  ultimate  condition  of  the  one  universal  church. 

God  grant  that  we  may  have  such  honesty  and  simplicity  and 
truthfulness  that  all  that  is  right  in  us  shall  interpret  God  to  us. 
And  may  we  have  humility.  May  we  not  suppose  that  we  have 
found  God  out  to  perfection.  May  we  have  charity  toward  all  men. 
And  may  we  have  such  fellowship  as  to  bind  in  confidence  all, 
everywhere,  who  honestly  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord. 


EEAUT-CONVICTION,  309 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  draw  near  to  thee,  our  Father,  by  thy  Spirit,  taught  to  call  thee 
Father.  This  is  that  in  thee  which  most  we  need.  For  though  we  need 
thine  hand  to  sustain  our  body,  and  though  we  need  to  be  filled  with  inspi- 
ration of  thought  from  thee,  most  we  need  mercy  and  kindness  and  gentle- 
ness. All  through  our  life  we  are  for  knowledge  but  as  children.  "We 
need  to  be  dealt  with  as  a  nurse  dealeth  with  the  babe.  And,  looking  to 
thee,  we  rejoice  that  thy  heart  is  paternal,  and  full  of  infinite  mercy  and 
goodness,  and  that  we  need  not  turn  as  from  the  darkness  of  the  cloud  and 
the  storm,  but  that  we  may  find  in  thee  all  cheer  and  all  comfort  and  all 
gladness,  and  that  so  our  life  may  be  established  in  thine  as  from  within  it 
draws  all  its  fullness. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  not,  O  Lord  our  God  !  look  upon  us  as  upon  those 
around  about  thee  who  stand  in  primal  innocence.  Look  not  upon  us 
according  to  the  measure  of  thine  own  purity.  Remember  that  we  are  but 
frail  dust;  and  like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so.  Lord,  pity  us.  And 
in  thy  great  compassion  strengthen  us  in  our  weakness.  Humble  us  where 
we  are  over-swollen  with  pride,  and  comfort  us  if  we  be  in  affliction.  Give 
us  strength  and  patience  that  we  may  hold  out  through  the  longest  day  of 
darkness.  And  may  we  be  saved  by  hope  as  well  as  by  faith,  discerning 
things  unseen,  and  beholding  things  that  are  not,  that  we  maybe  able  to 
stand  in  the  true  world  invisible  and  spiritual,  though  the  outward  world, 
material  and  fleshly,  do  fail  us. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  our  God !  that  thou  wilt  grant  to  every  one  in  thy 
presence  this  morning  the  manifestation  of  thy  Spirit,  according  to  his  need. 
Give  understanding  to  those  in  darkness  of  mind.  Give,  we  pray  thee, 
apprehension  of  the  truth  to  those  that  are  in  error.  Grant  to  those  that 
are  burdened  and  bowed  down,  patience;  and  may  they  behold  how  the 
very  trees  themselves  do  symbolize  their  duty,  that  are  bent  with  the 
weight  of  that  water  which,  plunging  to  their  root,  gives  them  life  again, 
and  strength  to  lift  up  the  bough,  by  and  by,  when  the  storm-clouds  shall 
have  gone,  and  the  sun  shall  shine. 

We  pray,  O  Lord !  that  thou  wilt  be  near  to  all  those  who  are  in  aflBlc- 
tion.  Speak  to  them  words  which  they  cannot  imagine  themselves.  May 
they  hear  the  voice  of  songs  around  about  them,  as  if  thy  good  spirits  had 
descended  to  cheer  and  comfort  them. 

Grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are  perplexed  as  to  duty; 
and  to  all  that  are  in  darkness  and  trouble  in  respect  to  their  affairs ;  and 
to  all  that  are  in  trouble  and  perplexity  in  regard  to  their  relations  among 
themselves.  Enter  into  the  secret  experience;  go  in  behind  the  veil;  and 
grant  that  thy  Spirit  may  so  cleanse,  and  purify,  and  sweeten,  and  inspire, 
that  every  one  may  feel  that  it  has  been  good  to  be  with  the  Lord  in  his 
sanctuary  this  day. 

Grant  consolation  to  those  that  are  in  the  presence  of  their  dead.  Sup- 
port those  that  in  fear  and  grief  are  with  their  sick,  waiting  for  the  time 
when  they  shall  die.  Be  with  all  who  with  anguish  remember  past  histo- 
ries. Let  not  their  sorrow  be  in  over-measure.  Grant  that,  though  for  a 
time  it  is  grievous,  it  may  work  out  in  them,  and  that  speedily,  the  peace- 
able fruit  of  righteousness. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  that 
would  fain  be  with  us  to-day,  but  are  not  gathered  with  us.  Be  with  them 
in  their  houses,  and  homes,  and  closets,  and  hearts.  May  it  be  a  day  of  rest 
to  their  souls.    May  it  be  to  them  a  day  of  rejoicing  in  the  Lord. 

We  pray  for  all  that  are  this  day  ecattered  through  our  land,  and  in  for- 


310  EEAET-C0I>1  rJCTJON 

eign  lands,  and  upon  the  great  deep.  May  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  be  with 
them.  And  may  their  memories  of  the  past  he  sanctified.  And  may  the 
sympathies  which  come  hack  from  them  to  us  bring  the  blessing  of  the  Lord. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  upon  all  that  this  day  are  la- 
boring in  word  or  doctrine.  Be  with  those  that  go  forth  to  malie  known  the 
Gospel  to  the  scattered  and  ungathered.  Grant  that  those  who  are  laboring 
with  painstaking  and  self-denial  may  not  be  weary  in  well-doing. 

Bless  those,  we  pray  thee,  who  are  striving  for  a  better  life,  and  have 
parted  from  sin,  and  have  come  away  from  immorality.  May  they  find  the 
ground  under  thtir  feet  firm,  and  may  they  gain  strength  from  day  to  day. 
Mi)y  they  be  valiant  and  faithful  in  the  cause  of  their  new  Master. 

Let  thy  blessing  go  all  abroad  upon  all  those  who  are  teaching— upon 
the  school-masters  and  upon  the  school -mistresses  in  this  land;  and  espe- 
cially upon  those  who  are  in  desolate  places — upon  those  who  have  exiled 
themselves,  and  gone  away  from  the  sympathy  of  friends,  that  they  may 
teach  the  poor  and  needy. 

Raise  tbou  up  more  and  more  a  kindly  spirit  among  men  towards  those 
that  are  now  in  our  midst,  who  must  maintain  their  rights  by  intelligence 
and  purity.  Wilt  thou  incline  the  hearts  of  others  toward  them.  And 
wilt  thou  draw  them  out  of  darkness  and  into  light. 

We  pray  for  the  schools  and  colleges  and  academies  in  our  land.  We 
pray  for  all  those  institutions  which  are  for  the  discovery  and  for  the  diffu- 
sion of  useful  knowledge. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  nations  of  the  earth.  May 
they  no  longer,  like  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  use  their  strength  to  rend  and 
to  tear.  May  the  time  come  when  nations  shall  help  nations ;  when  they 
shall  stand  aaound  about  each  other,  even  as  brothers  and  sisters  are  united 
in  the  household,  in  one  body,  that  they  may  all  help  where  each  is  defi- 
cient, and  lejoico  where  each  is  strong.  Make  daste,  we  beseech  of  thee,  and 
bring  in  that  latter-day  so  long  promised,  and  so  long  delayed.  And  may 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  at  last  shine  through  all  the  earth. 

We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  bless  the  word  spoken,  and  may  it  be  for  our  edifi- 
cation. May  we  be  delivered  from  error,  and  purified  in  heart  that  we  may 
believe  more  perfectly.  May  we  trust  in  such  truth  as  we  have;  and  may 
we  look  forward  to  that  more  blessed  day  when  imperfections  and  limita- 
tions shall  have  passed  away,  and  when  we  shall  be  developed  more,  so  that 
all  the  nobler  and  higher  truths  which  now  are  beyond  our  vision  or  our 
imagination  shall  be  made  known  to  us.  And  then  may  we  meet  together 
to  rejoice  with  one  another  with  supreme  love,  and  power,  and  truth,  and 
justice,  and  goodness.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  forever  and 
ever.    A  men. 


XVI. 

The  Glory  of  Jehovah. 


We  pray  for  thy  grace,  our  Heavenly  Father,  this  morning.  We  pray 
for  that  smile  of  welcome  whioh  our  hearts  know  full  well.  Give  us  the 
tokens  of  thy  presence,  and  the  rising  up  within  us  of  desires  and  aspirations. 
Grant  unto  us  a  sense  of  thy  hounty,  and  let  all  painful  doubts  and  fears 
and  all  things  carnal,  flee  away.  And  as  we  know  the  morning,  because  all 
the  earth  is  bright,  and  everything  shines  and  sings,  so  may  we  know  that 
daylight  hath  come  from  on  high  unto  us  by  the  gladness  that  la  in  our  souls. 
Help  us  to  sing  thy  praise,  and  to  be  joyful  therein,  worshiping  God  in  love 
Help  us  to  speak  thy  truth,  and  to  profit  by  the  word  of  instruction.  Guide 
us  in  our  thoughts  and  meditations.  Bless  our  homes,  and  all  the  hours  of 
the  day.  May  all  the  earth  be  the  temple  of  God  to  us  this  day,  and  every 
sound  be  music  and  rejoicing.  Prepare  us  thus  by  our  earthly  experience 
for  our  association  and  our  blessedness  in  the  life  which  is  to  come.  We  ask 
it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

16. 


THE  GLORY  OF  JEHOVAH. 


*'Andhe  said,  I  beseech  thee,  show  me  thy  glory.  And  he  said,  I  will 
make  all  my  goodness  pass  before  thee,  and  I  will  proclaim  the  name  of  the 
Lord  before  thee ;  and  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will 
show  mercy  on  whom  I  will  show  mercy." — Ex.  xxxiii.  18,  19. 

"And  the  Lord  descended  in  the  cloud,  and  stood  with  him  there,  and 
proclaimed  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord  passed  by  before  him,  and 
proclaimed,  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering, 
and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving 
iui(iuity,  and  transgression,  and  sin,  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the 
children's  children  unto  the  third,  and  to  the  fourth  generation."— Ex. 
xxxiv.,  5-7. 


Moses  was  the  one  great  man  of  antiquity.  Although  there  is 
an  element  of  venerableness  in  the  patriarchs — Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob — they  stand  in  our  imagination  rather  as  great  frescoes. 
They  are  types  of  certain  natures  ;  but  they  said  and  did  little 
which  was  worth  recording.  Though  they  were  great  men  in  their 
times,  judged  by  the  standards  of  those  times,  they  have  left  as  a 
legacy  very  little.  But  Moses,  as  a  thinker,  a  legislator,  a  poet  and 
an  admhiistrator,  was  great,  not  only  as  measured  by  his  own  ao-e, 
but  as  measured  by  any  age.  His  institutes  are  not  worn  out. 
Aside  from  that  wonderful  people  who  have  based  their  whole  econ- 
omy upon  the  Mosaic  Institutes,  the  spirit  of  the  Mosaic  economy 
has  been  breathed  into  universal  civilization. 

While  it  was  given  to  other  nations  to  develop  the  intellectual 
'side  of  human  nature,  and  the  side  of  beauty,  it  was  given  to  the 
Jew  jto  develop  the  moral  side.  And  from  that  economy  which 
Moses  himself  founded,  and  for  a  long  time  administered,  sprano-  in- 
fluences which  have  changed  and  developed  the  civilization  of  the 
whole  globe.  / 

Moses  began  his  public  career  at  a  time  when  most  men  are  ready 
to  die,  or  are  very  old ;  for  he  was  eighty  years  of  age  when  he  un- 
dertook to  lead  the  people  forth  from  Egypt.  For  forty  years, 
beginning  at  eighty,  he  administered  national  affiiirs,  leading  that 
people  through  the  desert,  and  to  the  borders  of  the  promised  land. 

Sunday  Morning,   June  11,  18TL     Lebson  .  Job  XXXVIU.    Hthns  (Plymouth 
CollecUon)  :  Nos.  199, 128,  888. 


314  THE  QLOBY  OF  JEHOVAE. 

And  it  is  said  that  when  he  died  his  eye  wa"s  not  dimmed  nor  his 
natural  force  abated.  In  recounting  the  great  worthies  of  the  then 
antiquity,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  mentions,  of 
course,  Moses,  and  speaks  of  him  in  a  manner  which  implies  that  he 
was  one  who  had  lived  under  a  tremendous  burden,  and  declares 
that  "  he  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible."  In  other  words, 
he  declares  that  the  inspiration  and  support  of  his  wonderful  life 
was  the  conscious  presence,  and  his  knowledge,  of  God. 

It  becomes,  therefore,  a  matter  of  more  thancurifisity,  a  matter 
of  profound  Jntefest^to  us,  to  know^Jia^^thatTview  of  God  was, 
what^hose  fundamentaPideas^  of^thgTSiyine  natureL^were,  which 
Moses  received^jwhich^ustained  hjm,jivhich  insj)ired_hilQ>^nd  which 
unquegtiona]3]yilai<l.tbejoundation  ofjthose  gnstitutes  and  that  ad- 
ministration  which  have  made  Iiis  name  and  nation  so  famous.  This 
view  is_contjjnedjn^^)urjtext. 

The  people  had  been  carried  out  of  Egypt.  They  had  gathered 
themselves  around  the  base  of  Sinai.  And  Moses  was  seized,  as  well 
he  might  have  been,  with  a  profound  feeling  of  discouragement  and 
dread.  He  had  these  millions  on  his  hands.  There  was  nowhere  on 
earth  that  he  could  look  for  succor.  So  he  turned  himself  to  God. 
And  we  may  well  believe  that  in  the  anguish  of  his  soul  he  besought 
God  to  help  him. 

"  Moses  said  unto  the  Lord,  See,  thou  sayest  unto  me,  Bring  up  this 
people :  and  thou  hast  not  let  me  know  whom  thou  wilt  send  with  me.  Yet 
thou  hast  said,  I  know  thee  by  name,  and  thou  hast  also  found  grace  in  my 
sight.  Now,  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  if  I  have  found  grace  in  thy  sight,  show 
me  now  thy  way,  that  I  may  know  thee,  that  I  may  find  grace  in  thy  sight ; 
and  consider  that  this  nation  is  thy  people." 
To  this  God  replied, 

"  My  presence  shall  go  with  thee,  and  I  will  give  thee  rest." 
And  Moses  said, 

♦'  If  thy  presence  go  not  with  me,  carry  us  not  up  hence.    For  wherein 
shall  it  be  known  here  that  I  and  thy  people  hare  found  grace  in  thy  sight? 
Is  it  not  in  that  thou  goest  with  us  ?    So  shall  we  be  separated,  I  and  thy 
people,  from  all  the  people  that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth." 
The  Lord  again  responded,  saying  unto  Moses, 

"  I  will  do  this  thing  also  that  thou  hast  spoken ;  for  thou  hast  found 
grace  in  my  sight,  and  I  know  thee  by  name." 
And  Moses  said, 

"  I  beseech  thee,  show  me  thy  glory  ?'* 
And  the  Lord  said, 

"  I  will  make  all  my  goodness  pass  before  thee,  and  I  will  proclaim  the 
name  of  the  Lord  before  thee ;  and  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be 
gracious,  and  will  show  mercy  on  whom  I  will  show  mercy." 

And  so,  after  some  preliminary  observations  and  prescriptions, 
"  The  Lord  descended  in  the  cloud,  and  stood  with  him  there,  and  pro- 
claimed the  name  of  the  Lord." 


TEE  GLOB  Y  OF  JERO  YAH,  315 

In  other  words,  as  Moses  had  asked  that  he  might  see  God's 
glory,  God  replied  that  he  should  see  his  goodness^  as  if  that  was 
the  equivalent  of  his  glory.  ^"^^^ 

Moses  was  about  to  lead  this  great  people  up  from  comparative 
barbarism  to  civilization ;  but  he  wanted  some  view  of  God  upon 
which  he  could  stand,  and  from  which  he  could  legislate.  He  wanted 
to  frame  laws  and  institutions  that  should  go  down  to  remote  o-ene- 
fations,  and  he  desired,  therefore,  to  have  the  starting-point  of  all 
this  work  founded  in  the  highest  and  truest  knowledge  of  God.  He 
desired  to  see  God  from  that  stand-point  which  would  make  him  a 
wise  legislator,  a  wise  judge,  and  a  wdse  leader.  And  he  said, 
"  What  are  those  views,  O  my  God,  by  which  I  shall  shape  my 
w^hole  course  and  administration,  and  upon  which  I  shall  educate 
this  great  people  ?  Show  them  to  me  now.'*  He  asked  the  charter, 
as  it  were,  of  divine  character.  He  asked  that  God  would  reveal 
himself  in  those  elementary  principles  of  constitution  and  law  which 
should  be  the  right  foundation  on  which  to  build  the  whole  super- 
structure of  the  economy  that  was  to  stand  for  ages.  And  it  was 
in  answer  to  this  practical  demand  that  this  view  was  given  by  God 
of  his  own  nature, 

"  Afld  the  Lord  passed  by  before  him,  and  proclaimed,  the  Lord,  [Jehovah] 
the  Lord  God  [Jehovah],  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suflfering,  and  abun- 
dant in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  in- 
iquity and  transgression  and  sin,  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty  ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the 
children's  children,  unto  the  third  and  to  the  fourth  generation." 

You  will  observe  that  in  this  declaration  made  for  the  specific 
purpose  of  practical  use  in  the  highest  offices  of  the  highest  life,  the 
very  center  and  substance  of  the  representation  is,  that  God  is  a 
God  of  goodness,  though  goodness  is  not  to  be  understood  as  im- 
plying the  absence  of  punitive  administration.  It  is  not  an  ad- 
ministration which  excludes  pain  and  severity,  if  they  be  needful. 

Consider,  in  reading  this  description  of  the  divine  nature  given 
by  God  himself  to  his  servant  of  old,  that,  in  the  first  place,  there  is 
an  omission  of  what  are  called  the  natural  attributes  of  God.  There 
is  nothing  said  of  his  creative  power.  There  is  nothing  said  of  his 
sustaining  power.  There  is  nothing  said  of  his  power  at  any  rate. 
There  is  nothing  said  of  his  wisdom.  There  is  nothing  said  of  what 
we  are  accustomed  to  call  God's  omnipotence,  his  omniscience,  or  his 
omnipresence.  Not  that  they  are  not  traits  or  attributes  of  God  , 
but  they  are  not  the  characteristic  elements  of  the  divine  disposition. 
These  ai-e  to  the  divine  nature  what  the  body,  wuth  its  health,  its 
strength,  its  skill  and  its  beauty,  is  to  man.  They  are  not  unim- 
portant.    Every  man  appreciates  what  it  is  to  have  a  good  personal 


316  THE  GLOB  Y  OF  JEEO  YAH 

presence,  and  to  have  bodily  power  and  vigor.  But  as  civilization 
develops  mankind,  without  disesteeming  physical  qualities  we  learn 
to  put  emphasis  upon  character  and  disposition.  In  savage  life,  he 
is  the  greatest  man  who  can  lift  the  most,  or  hurl  the  weight  farthest, 
or  contend  most  successfully  in  battle.  In  other  words,  physical 
strength  is  the  ideal  of  manhood. 

But  as  civilization  goes  on,  we  transfer  skill  from  mere  muscular 
development  to  mental  capacity  or  power,  whether  it  be  in  com- 
merce or  politics,  or  any  other  sphere  of  the  intellect. 

And  as  civilization  still  develops,  we  rise  higher,  and  then  man's 
"worth  resides,  not  in  his  bodily  conditions  nor  in  his  physical 
skill,  nor  in  his  intellectual  power,  but  in  his  inward  character  and 
disposition. 

We  have,  then,  in  ourselves,  an  analogy  or  intimation  of  that 
which  appears  in  this  declaration  of  Jehovah  to  his  servant  Moses, 
where,  passing  by,  as  it  were,  all  the  incidentals — the  elements  of 
mere  power  or  intellect,  or  wisdom — he  asserts  that  his  divinity 
resides  in  the  central  element  of  goodness.  When  asked  to  make 
his  glory  manifest,  he  says,  "  I  will  show  you  my  goodness,"  as 
much  as  to  say  that  his  goodness  was  his  glory. 

If  you  analyze  this  disposition  upon  which  God  places  emphasis 
as  most  eminent  and  characteristic,  you  will  see  how  it  still  hangs 
around  about  that  one  center  ;  how  it  lingers  and  repeats  itself  in 
every  various  form.  As  a  sweet  phrase  in  music,  under  Beethoveii*o 
hand,  forever  changed,  and  yet  forever  came  back  again  to  the 
theme,  so  you  will  find  here  that  this  one  central  notioii  of  divine 
goodness,  changing  and  altering,  never  is  lost,  but  continually,  from 
beginning  to  end,  is  made  to  reappear. 

"The  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abundant  in 
goodness  and  truth  [what  we  mean  by  fidelity],  keeping  mercy  for  thou- 
sands, forjziviug  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin,  and  that  will  by  no 
means  clear  the  guilty." 

This  undertone  is  just  as  necessary  to  our  conception  of  divine 
goodness  as  is  the  idea  that  all  responsibility  and  all  penalty  are  not 
malign,  either  by  accident  or  by  intent,  but  are  the  applications  of 
goodness  itself. 

God's  long  suffering,  his  patience,  his  fidelity  to  men,  his  leniency, 
his  forgiving  disposition,  which  goes  on  and  on  and  on,  must  not  be 
interpreted  into  moral  laxity  and  indifference.  It  is  the  goodness  of 
One  who  prefers,  with  infinite  preference,  that  which  is  holy,  and 
just,  and  pure,  and  good.  It  is  the  goodness  of  One  tliat  will  not 
leave  untried  all  appropriate  influences  to  maintain,  to  increase,  and 
finally  to  make  victorious  that  which  is  resplendent  in  purity  and 


THE  QLOBT  OF  JEEO  VAB.  317 

ineffable  in  goodness,  though  he  "will  by  no  means  clear  tho 
guilty." 

God  is  not  good  in  any  such  sense  as  tliat  he  is  weakly  indul- 
gent. He  desires  happiness  in  men ;  but  he  desires  to  promote 
happiness  in  them  by  making  them  susceptible  to  happiness — by 
developing  them  so  that  they  sliall  be  able  to  be  happy. 

This  conception  of  God,  as  a  vindicator  of  Law,  is  what  expe- 
rience toadies,  and  what  Providence  has  taught.  If  there  be  one 
thing  which  nature  teaches  more  clearly  than  another,  it  is  the  doc- 
trine of  penalty  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  doctrine  that  disobedience 
of  law  brings  suffering.  And  at  the  same  time  nature  also  teaches  that 
obedience  of  law  brings  healing  and  forgiveness.  It  has  been  believed 
that  nature  taught  nothing  except  that  the  znan  who  sins  shall  die ; 
but  nature  does  give  a  hint  of  something  more  than  this.  He  Avho, 
disregarding  the  laws  of  gravity,  by  springing  over  a  precipice 
breaks  his  leg,  certainly  learns  penalty  ;  but  if  he  goes  home  and 
has  his  leg  set  and  put  in  splints,  and  the  bones  knit  together  and 
acquire  new  strength,  he  learns  remedy  and  forgiveness.  When  a 
man  is  sick  he  is  taught  that  there  is  penalty  for  transgression  ;  and 
when  he  gets  well  he  is  taught  that  there  is  mercy  for  transgressors. 
Resiliency  and  recuperation  are  indications  of  mercy,  as  much  as 
Buffering  and  pain  are  indications  of  justice,  on  the  part  of  God. 
Nature  teaches  penalty  ;  and  in  an  obscure  way  it  also  teaches 
remedy.  Providence  likewise  teaches  penalty  and  remedy.  And 
the  great  experiences  of  mankind  have  shaped  themselves  into  the 
universal  feeling  that  to  do  right  is  in  the  main  to  court  happiness, 
and  that  to  do  wrong  is  in  the  main  to  court  unhappiness. 

Men  feel,  also,  that  penalty,  as  well  as  remedy,  is  an  instrument 
of  benevolence.  And  there  are  those  who  blame  their  neighbors  for 
making  too  little  use  of  penalty.  There  are  those  who  pride  them- 
selves upon  not  being  too  lenient.  "  I  love  my  children  too  well  to 
indulge  them  in  things  that  are  not  for  their  good,"  says  many  a 
parent.  "We  look  upon  the  children  of  others  that  have  been  spoiled 
by  indulgence,  and  say,  "  Weak  mother,  to  let  her  children  do 
as  they  please,  because  she  is  fond  of  them  !  Foolish  parents, 
to  give  their  children  pleasure  to-day,  which  will  deprive  them 
of  pleasure  to-morrow !"  We  say  of  stern  parents,  "  They  are  very 
severe ;  but  see  how  their  children  are  turning  out."  The  reoult 
determines  the  wisdom  of  the  course  pursued  ;  and  if  under  an 
administration  of  sternness  children  turn  out  well,  we  cannot  but 
praise  that  sternness,  because  it  proves  itself  in  the  end  to  be  kind- 
ness. Nothing  can  be  more  really  kind  than  the  infliction  of  6u2er- 
ing  for  the  sake  of  making  joy  more  abundant  in  the  future. 


318  THIS  GLOBY  OF  JHEO TAB, 

Therefore,  this  declaration,  which  was  conpled  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  divine  nature  at  this  very  early  period,  is  one  which 
runs  with  human  experience  and  observation,  and  belongs  to  our 
sense  of  that  which  is  right  and  true — the  declaration  of  goodness 
seeking  goodness,  and  doing  it,  too,  wherever  necessary,  at  the 
expense  of  suffering,  or  by  the  use  of  pain. 

But  the  central  point  is  this :  is  there  a  Divinity  that  uses  pain 
for  the  sake  of  pain  ?  Is  there  a  government  over  this  universe  in 
which  there  is  suffering  without  any  other  end  than  suffering  ?  Can 
there  be  any  better  definition  given  of  malignity  than  that  it  is 
a  voluntary  administration  of  suffering  merely  for  the  sake  of 
suffering  ?  The  question  which  every  man  wants  solved  for  him- 
self, just  as  much  as  Moses  did,  is.  What  is  the  center  from  which 
penalty  springs  ?  Does  it  come  from  passion,  does  it  come  from 
wrath,  does  it  come  from  wounded  self-esteem,  in  any  super-eminent 
power  ?  What  is  the  origin  of  the  pain  and  the  penalty  which  we 
see  in  the  lower  forms  of  life  where  men  are  in  contact  with  material 
things  ?  What  is  the  origin  of  the  pain  and  the  penalty  which  we 
see  when  men  have  risen  into  their  social  relationships  ?  What  is 
the  origin  of  the  pain  and  the  penalty  which  we  see  at  large  in 
society,  and  which  develop  themselves  on  every  hand  ?  What  is  the 
controlling  mfluence  in  which  this  strange  quality  of  pain-bearmg 
inheres  ? 

There  have  been  those  who  said  that  it  belonged  to  a  separate 
divinity — to  a  cruel  and  hating  One  that  loved  blood  and  suffering. 
But  men  could  not  accept  that  view,  it  seemed  so  contrary  even  to 
their  low  and  crude  ideas  of  love. 

There  have  been  others  who  joined  pleasure  and  pain  in  one  ad- 
ministration, and  taught  that  the  divine  character  was  one  which, 
when  we  were  reconciled  to  it,  was  full  of  goodness  and  mercy,  but 
which,  when  we  were  unreconciled  to  it,  was  full  of  wrath  and  hatred 
and  pain-loving.  Yea,  it  has  been  taught  that  "  for  the  sake  of  his 
own  glory"  God  created  pain,  and  stamped  it  with  immortality.  It 
is  stated  in  that  ancient  formula  of  faith,  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion, that  "  not  with  foresight  of  good  or  evil,  not  on  account  of  any 
supposed  misconduct,  but  for  purposes  of  his  own  free-will  and 
glory,"  God  did  create  a  race,  lax-ge  portions  of  which,  not  being 
elected,  would  go  on  to  eternal  punishment,  suffering  forever  and 
forever  remedilessly — and  all  "  for  his  own  glory"  I 

Now,  when  Moses  asked  of  God  that  he  would  show  him  his 
glory,  he  said, "  I  will  make  my  goo.dness  pass  before  you,"  thus  de- 
claring that  his  goodness  was  his  glory.  And  when  all  things  were 
arranged,  and  Moses  went  up  into  the  mountain  as  he  had  been  com- 


TEE  GLORT  OF  JEEOVAH.  319 

manded  to  do,  the  Lord  descended  au-^  proclaimed  the  name  of  the 
Lord;  and  then  he  went  onto  declare  what  the  divine  elements 
were,  saying, 

"Merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and 
truth,  keeping  mercy  for  tliousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression 
and  sin,  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty." 

This  one  little  qualifying  phrase,  and  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty,  was  all  that  he  said  on  that  side.  But  look  at  the  amplitude, 
the  repetition,  the  richness  of  description,  the  fullness,  the  tropical 
luxuriance,  which  were  emj^loyed  in  evolving  the  idea  that  the  cen- 
tral nature  of  the  administration  of  God  is  one  of  mercy — and  that, 
too,  against  men  that  transgress,  imperfect  men,  undeveloped  men, 
sinning  men,  wicked  men,  had  men.  It  would  seem  as  if  it  were 
meant  to  imply  that  there  was  depth  after  depth  of  mercy  in  the 
divine  administration,  that  there  was  forgiveness  for  sins  of  every 
kind  and  degree,  and  that  through  long  eras  he  manifested  his 
patience  toward  the  transgressor.  He  made  the  declaration  full  and 
laz-ge.  But  lest  men  should  say,  "  There  is  no  danger  in  sinning ;  if 
I  transgress  I  shall  be  forgiven,"  he,  as  it  were,  says,  "  Ah  !  do  not 
think  that  you  can  escape.  I  will  not  forgive  finally  the  unrcgen- 
erate.  I  will  administer  goodness  for  the  sake  of  reclaiming  the 
wicked,  and  I  will  exercise  patience  toward  them  ;  but  rather  than 
give  them  over,  I  will  apply  pain  and  penalty  to  them." 

And  here  we  see  the  declaration  of  that  great  law  of  inheritance 
of  which  so  much  is  made  in  our  day,  and  which  was  disclosed 
under  the  Mosaic  dispensation  ages  and  ages  before  it  was  disclosed 
by  what  we  see  in  modern  philosophy.  That  the  iniquity  of  parents 
is  visited  upon  their  children  from  generation  to  generation,  we 
know.  We  know  that  the  drunkard's  child  is  apt  to  be  a  drunkard. 
We  know  that  the  child  of  an  insane  person  is  apt  to  be  insane.  We. 
know  that  the  constitutional  peculiarities  of  father  and  mother  are 
apt  to  show  themselves  in  their  offspring.  We  know  that  the  per- 
versities of  a  man's  heart  are  likely  to  go  down  to  his  children.  We 
know  that  the  sins  of  one  generation  sometimes  entail  their  evil 
consequences  upon  the  four  or  five  generations  which  follow  them. 
We  know  that  these  things  are  a  part  of  the  economy  of  the  whole 
universe,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  observe  it. 

But  you  will  observe  that  the  emphasis  of  the  divine  character 
lies  in  the  direction  of  goodness,  and  that  the  qualifying  phrase,  the 
alternative,  limiting  notion  is  that  of  penal  justice,  which  is  inter- 
preted and  directed  by  this  great  central  element.  It  is  a  justice 
which  seeks  to  make  men  just.  It  is  pain-bearing  for  the  sake  of 
taking  away  pain.  It  is  remedial  infliction.  It  is  penalty  tempered 
with  love.     We  have  the  declaration  of  God  that  all  the  wide  sweep 


320  TEE  GLOB  Y  OF  JE HOY  AH. 

of  pain  and  penalty  which  we  see  in  society  is  simply  a  part  of  the 
economy  of  divine  goodness.  It  springs  from  that  center.  It  origi- 
nates in  a  goodness  which  produces  pain  only  where  the  production 
of  pain  tends  to  produce  happiness  by  and  by.  The  divine  charac- 
ter is  ref)resented  as  being  an  orb  of  bright,  glowing,  glorious  good- 
ness in  all  its  forms  and  developments ;  and  yet  it  is  capable  of  pro- 
ducing pain  wherever  pain  may  be  necessary  to  the  well-being  of 
those  under  its  administration.  And  this  was  the  interior  view 
which  mankind  needed. 

Let  us  recur  to  the  fact  that  Moses  asked  for  a  view  of  God  on 
which  he  should  found  his  administration.  "  Give  me,"  said  he, 
"  that  view  of  thyself  and  thy  nature  and  thine  administration  that 
shall  enable  me  to.govern  these  people  aright.  I  am  to  make  laws ; 
I  am  to  frame  institutions ;  I  am  to  administer  justice  between  man 
and  man ;  I  am  to  give  men  the  word  of  instruction  in  respect  to 
their  households  ;  and  let  me  come  back  to  the  Foiintain  of  truth  and 
knowledge.  What  art  thou,  oh  my  God?  Teach  me  thyself,  and 
then  I  shall  be  able  to  teach  this  people." 

Thus  solicited,  God  gave  this  representation  of  his  character : 
that  it  was  chiefly  a  character  of  love  and  mercy.  But  to  this  rep- 
resentation was  added  the  fact  that  this  love  and  this  mercy  would 
arm  themselves  with  penalties  sufticient  to  exterminate  evil  and  to 
promote  good. 

It  was  this  that  Moses  took  as  the  basis  of  his  administration. 
And  it  would  be  a  matter  of  great  interest  to  show,  what  might  be 
shown — that  Moses'  administration,  founded  on  that  central  notion 
which  he  derived  from  God's  nature  and  character,  branched  out 
into  statutes  of  humanity  which  marked  it  from  all  contemporaneous 
governments. 

There  is  one  other  part  of  this  passage  which  I  have  not  em- 
phasized. When  Moses  besought  God  that  he  would  show  him  his 
glory,  God  said, 

"I  will  make  all  my  goodness  pass  before  thee,  and  I  will  proclaim  the 
name  of  the  Lord  before  thee." 

And  then  he  added, 

"  I  win  be  gracious  on  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will  show  mercy  on 
whom  I  will  show  mercy." 

There  is,  to  me,  great  significance  in  that  declaration  of  personal 
liberty  on  the  part  of  God.  Not  only  is  this  fact  very  significant, 
but  it  is  very  needful  in  our  time.  For  there  are  but  few  men  who 
have  a  God  that  has  any  liberty.  If  you  ask  natural  science  to-day 
I  what  God's  functions  are,  it  will  tell  you  that  he  has,  as  an  Artificer, 
invented  and  set  a-going  a  vast  machine,  and  that  his  particular 
business  now  is  to  oil  the  wheels  of  that  machine,  and  watch  the 


THE  GLOB Y  OF  JEUO  VAE.  3  2 1 

j 
operation  of  it.  When  I  ask  a  man  to  pray,  men  sneer  anrl  laugh, 
and  say,  "  Do  you  suppose  that  God  is  going  to  stop  turning  the 
wheels  of  the  universe,  and  is  going  to  change  the  action  of  his  laws, 
to  accommodate  any  man,  or  any  number  of  men  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it. 
If  you  want  anything,  you  must  do  exactly  what  other  people 
have  to  do.  God  is  grinding  all  the  time,  and  those  tliat  help 
themselves  will  have  such  elements  as  are  being  supplied  at  his  mill ; 
but  that  great  machine  is  not  going  to  be  stopped  to  put  in  any 
little  elements  different  from  these,  which  this  or  that  man  may 
want  or  ask  for.  God  is  a  great  mill-grinder,  and  he  stands  grind- 
ing out  by  natural  laws  those  things  which  it  is  designed  that  men 
shall  have,  and  no  one  can  have  anything  except  that  which  comes 
to  everybody."  When  I  plead  for  the  inspiration  of  God's  wisdom, 
men  say,  "  Do  you  suppose  God  is  going  to  hear  you,  and  give  you 
a  gift  of  special  inspiration  ?  It  cannot  be  done.  Nature  is  im- 
mutable." Nowadays  philosophers  are  "talking  about  the  immuta- 
bility of  great  natural  laws,  and  laughing  to  scorn  our  theologies 
and  teachings  in  regard  to  the  power  of  God  to  answer  the  prayers 
of  his  people.  They  say,  "  God  has  arranged  everything,  and  he 
governs  by  laws,  and  he  cannot  change  those  laws,  and  therefore  he 
cannot  grant  special  favors."  i 

Well,  what  is  God  ?  These  philosophers  cannot  tell.  "  He  is 
something  in  the  nature  of  laws,"  they  say.  All  that  philosophy 
knows  about  him  is  law,  law,  law !  There  are  some  who  have  come 
BO  near  to  the  true  definition  of  God  that  they  are  now  willing  to 
admit  that  these  laws  are  the  result  of  force ;  and  they  talk  about 
the  great  Force  of  the  universe.  They  are  fashioning  a  new  name 
for  God,  on  the  same  principle  that  our  name  was  formed.  For  God 
is  a  contraction  of  the  word  good;  and  our  God  is  Goodness — a 
name  derived  from  the  great  central  characteristics  of  the  divine 
character.  Modern  philosophy  is  dispossessing  us  of  that  name,  and 
is  putting  Power  in  the  place  of  it.  And  God  is  going  to  be  Power — 
that  is  to  say,  a  PoAver  which,  having  made  this  great  machine  origi- 
nally, keeps  it  running,  and  tinkers  it  occasionally  when  it  gets  out 
of  repair,  but  which  cannot  do  anything  further  than  that.  It  is  not 
once  thought  by  these  philosophers  that  the  Power  which  created 
laws  can  stand  outside  of  them,  or  above  them,  and  give  new  func- 
tions to  them,  or  produce  unexpected  results  by  them.  They  ridi- 
cule men  who  have  faith  that  they  can  procure  special  blessings  by 
asking  God  for  them.  They  say,  "  If  you  want  anything  of  God, 
ask  Avhat  natural  laws  are,  and  use  them ;  and  if  you  are  strong 
enough  to  get  what  you  want,  you  will  get  it,  and  if  you  are  not 
strong  enough,  you  will  not  get  it" 


322  THE  GLOBT  OF  JEEOYAE. 

Practically  the  personality  of  God  is  taken  away,  and  he  is  left 
a  pigmy  of  the  iiniverse,  once  powerful  to  create,  but  now  powerless 
to  control  anything  that  he  has  created.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the 
insect  species,  that  when  once  the  fly  has  made  provision  for  its  off- 
spring, it  dies;  and  according  to  the  representations  of  these  mod- 
ern philosophers,  God  is  a  sort  of  exiguous  fly,  and  having  provided 
the  seed  for  events,  and  having  set  the  forces  of  nature  in  motion, 
has  nothing  more  to  do.  The  substance  of  their  teaching  is,  that 
being  omnipotent  and  all-wise,  God  marked  out  the  course  of  events, 
and  that,  having  by  his  creating  power  established  the  foundation 
of  things,  having,  as  it  were,  prepared  the  great  universe,  there  is 
nothing  more  that  he  can  do,  except  to  keep  on  rolling  and  roll- 
ing and  rolling  the  wheels  of  the  vast  apparatus  which  he  has 
brought  into  existence,  with  power  to  keep  it  a-going,  but  without 
power  to  stop  it,  or  to  use  it,  or  to  change  it,  or  to  modify  it  in  any 
way. 

Therefore  there  is  great  significance  in  that  declaration  which 
God  makes  of  himself,  where,  having  proclaimed  himself  to  be  a  God 
of  goodness,  he  instantly  proceeds  to  declare  his  personal  independ- 
ence, his  individual  freedom,  the  untrammeled  power  of  his  will, 
saying, 

"  I  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will  show  mercy  on 
whom  I  will  show  mercy." 

This  is  a  declaration  that  God  had  a  right  to  be  gracious  to  the 
Egyptians  as  well  as  to  the  Israelites  ;  or  to  the  nations  of  the  Orient, 
as  well  as  to  the  nations  of  the  Occident.  It  is  an  announcement 
of  God's  right  to  show  mercy  in  the  divine  administration  to  na- 
tions of  difierent  tongues ;  it  is  a  declaration  of  personal  liberty. 
This  liberty  of  God  to  act  according  to  his  will  inheres  in  the  cen- 
tral element  of  the  divine  nature.  And  to-day,  undiminished  in 
juice  and  freshness,  is  this  declaration  of  God,  "  I  will  have  mercy 
on  whom  I  will  have  mercy." 

In  other  words,  he  says,  "  I  am  not  chained.  I  am  not  absorbed 
in  the  machinery  of  the  universe.  I  have  liberty  to  think  as  I  please. 
I  have  liberty  to  use  the  laws  which  I  have  created,  or  to  set  them 
aside.  I  have  liberty  to  administer  outside  of  them,  or  through 
them,  or  over  them,  or  under  them."  God  is  greater  than  his  laws. 
He  is  not  tied  up  by  them.     He  can  act  independent  of  them. 

Men  say,  "  A  miracle  cannot  be."  Ah,  but  why  can  it  not  be  ? 
If  there  was  a  power  which  made  fire  to  burn,  and  water  to  quench 
fire,  cannot  that  same  power,  still  existing,  change  these  elements 
BO  that  water  shall  burn,  and  fire  shall  quench  water?  Is  not  the 
power  that  is  competent  to  create  a  quality,  also  competent  to  change 


THE  GLORY  OF  JEHOVAH.  323 

that  quality  ?    The  question  is  not  whether  it  prefers  to  change  it, 
but  whether  the  power  is  not  there. 

Men  say, "  God  administers  only  according  to  great  natural  laws." 
How  do  you  know  ? 

The  trouble  with  science  is,  that  it  teaches  of  God  simply  what 
it  perceives  of  the  administration  of  God  in  material  things,  or  in 
what  it  calls  nature.  It  assumes  that  nature  consists  of  matter. 
But  I  hold  that  the  very  capital  of  nature  is  the  human  soul,  and 
that  the  administration  of  the  divine  economy  in  respect  to  rocks, 
soils,  light,  water,  electricity,  heat,  or  what  not,  is  mere  nest-building. 
And  as  a  bird  is  better  than  the  nest  in  which  it  is  hatched,  so  man 
is  better  than  the  world  in  which  he  was  created,  and  which  was 
created  for  him. 

Now,  if  you  take  the  human  soul  as  a  part  of  nature  ;  if  you  take 
the  facts  which  human  experience  develops  as  belonging  to  the 
realm  of  nature ;  if  you  take  human  character  as  the  result  of  the 
action  of  the  forces  in  nature,  nothing  is  more  taught  than  personal 
liberty,  and  the  power  of  varying  natural  laws.  I  can  vary  the 
fruitfulness  of  natural  laws.  I  can  make  an  acre  of  land  barren  as  a 
desert,  or  I  can  make  it  bring  me  in  a  hundred  bushels  of  corn.  And 
how  can  I  do  it  ?  By  using  natural  laws.  Men  declare  that  natural 
laws  are  infrangible,  invincible,  and  beyond  the  control  of  God  him- 
self; and  yet  they  are  subject  to  changeable  use  by  even  the  human 
will.  I  can  make  the  world  a  wilderness,  or  I  can  transform  it  into  a 
garden ;  I  can  pile  up  machinery,  or  I  can  tear  it  down ;  I  can  build 
cities,  or  I  can  destroy  them ;  I  can  create,  or  I  can  annihilate ;  I  can 
find  out  electricity,  and  make  it  do  my  bidding ;  by  means  of  the 
electric  wire  I  can  make  the  world  bustle  with  activity  ;  I  can  im- 
pregnate natural  laws  with  vitality  from  my  own  brain ;  I  can,  by 
my  personal  energy,  produce  high  civilization — this  is  but  another 
form  of  telling  what  human  nature  has  done — I  can  do  all  these 
things,  acting  through  natural  laws;  and  yet  men  will  sturdily  say 
that  God,  infinite  and  transcendent,  cannot  do  anything  with  these 
laws.  They  teach  us  that  God  is  pent  up  by  natural  laws  which  he 
has  organized,  that  he  is  harnessed  to  them,  and  that  he  is  forever 
pulling  in  one  direction,  unable  to  change  his  course — in  other 
words,  that  he  is  a  mere  locomotive  on  an  iron  track,  and  can  neither 
turn  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left. 

This  is  a  base  conception ;  and  it  is  falsified  by  your  experience 
and  by  mine.  You  and  I  are  a  part  of  nature,  and  the  best  part  of 
it.     Man  is  the  cream,  and  the  rest  is  milk. 

Consider  the  understanding  and  the  social  afiections ;  consider 
what  a  man  is  in  relation  to  the  material  world  and  to  his  fellow- 


324  THE  GLOBY  OF  JEHOVAR. 

men  ;  consider  what  we  can  do  ;  and  then  consider  how  much  more 
transcendent  God  is  than  we  are  in  goodness,  and  in  power,  and  in 
wisdom,  and  in  all  those  qualities  which  raise  us  above  the  condition 
of  the  brute,  and  you  will  see  that  all  such  limitations  of  the  divine 
nature  are  preposterous  and  absurd. 

This  liberty  of  God  to  use  the  world  as  I  use  it ;  his  liberty  to 
change  the  world  as  he  pleases,  according  to  the  good  of  all  his 
creatures — this  great  liberty,  asserted  far  back  in  the  time  of  Moses, 
needs  to  be  emphasized  again  and  again  and  again,  and  particularly 
in  these  days  when  there  are  so  many  superficial  teachings  and 
thinkings  which  lead  one  to  suppose  that  there  is  no  God  except 
science,  and  that  there  is  nothing  in  science  but  fixed  natural  laws, 
— a  belief  which  amounts  to  absolute  atheism,  the  dreariest  and  most 
death-like. 

But  this  idea  of  the  liberty  of  God  has  another  application  b& 
side  that  which  is  made  to  science.  It  has  an  application  to  the- 
ology. I  am  oftentimes  asked,  "  Why  do  not  you  preach  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ  more  ?"  I  preach  the  nature  of  Christ.  I  preach 
his  life  and  his  teachings.  I  declare  my  faith  that  he  was  God  man- 
ifest in  the  flesh.  Although  the  fullness  of  the  divine  nature  was 
circumscribed,  was  not  made  manifest,  was  held  back  by  the  ob- 
struction of  the  flesh ;  yet  so  much  as  we  see  of  it  I  claim  to  be  the 
real  representation  of  the  action  of  the  divine  thought  and  feel- 
ing. I  preach  Christ,  personal.  I  preach  his  love,  his  patience,  his 
forgiveness,  his  power  upon  the  human  soul.  I  preach  him  as  the 
Author  and  the  Finisher  of  the  faith  of  every  soul  that  is  to  be 
saved.  I  set  him  forth  in  every  conceivable  way.  I  preach  Christ 
to  the  understanding,  to  the  conscience,  to  the  social  sympathies,  to 
every  side  of  uuman  nature.  I  preach  him  so  that  he  shall  comfort, 
and  inspire,  and  guide,  and  instruct,  and  be  a  power  on  and  in  the 
soul.  And  after  all,  men  say,  "  You  preach  a  good  deal  about  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  why  do  you  not  preach  about  his  atonement?" 

What  is  the  atonement  of  Christ  ?  Is  there  a  Christ,  and  then 
an  atonement  outside  of  him  which  is  a  kind  of  fourth  God  ?  The 
atonement  of  Christ  is  Christ  himself.  I  will  have  mercy  on 
whom  I  will  have  mercy — that  is  the  atonement.  It  is  the  in- 
herent and  everlasting  mercy  of  God,  "  Forgiving  iniquity  and 
transgression  and  sin,"  as  declared  in  this  Old  Testament  Scripture ' 
It  i?  the  tendency  of  the  divine,  loving  Soul  to  recuperate  men  who 
are  sick — to  draw  back  men  who  are  sinning.  Historically  regarded, 
this  power  of  the  heart  of  God,  this  healing  nature  of  the  divnie 
soul,  was  developed- and  maintained  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  1  do 
not  say  that  there  are  not  passages  in  regard  to  the  life  and  death 


TEE  GLOEY  OF  JEEOYAH.  325 

of  Christ  which  hint  at  relations  which  he  sustained  to  other  parts 
of  the  great  moral  economy  of  the  universe  ;  but  as  they  are  simply 
hints,  and  are  not  explained,  and  are  inexplicable,  I  let  them  alone 
merely  saying  that  there  are  such  hints.  But  the  only  thino-  in  re- 
gard to  Christ  that  the  New  Testament  does  explain,  is,  that  he 
loves  all  men,  and  that  he  will  save  all  that  will  let  him  save  them. 
And  the  atonement  of  Christ — of  the  Lamb  who  was  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  for  mankind — is  Love.  The  manifestation 
of  it,  the  disclosure  of  it,  was  by  his  earthly  life  and  death  ;  but  the 
thing  itself  is  infinite  and  eternal,  and  is  in  the  heart  of  Christ. 

This  does  aAvay,  in  a  moment,  with  the  old  reasoning  that  God 
the  Father  could  not  forgive  until  some  plan  of  atonement  was  ar- 
ranged, and  that  he  gave  his  Son  to  come  and  die  in  order  that  he 
might  forgive.  It  takes  away  all  that  machinery  of  false  philoso- 
phy, and  presents  the  truth  in  its  clarity  and  grandeur  and  reason- 
ableness. It  makes  known  the  better  doctrine  that  God  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  Goodness — a  Goodness  that  M'ill  not 
suffer  men  to  go  wrong  if  it  can  by  pain  and  penalty  stop  them — a 
Goodness  that  will  forgive  them  if  they  find  out  their  mistake  and 
turn  back.  The  "  plan  "  of  Atonement  eternally  existed  in  God's 
own  original  nature.  The  central  reason  why  God  forgives,  is,  that 
he  loves  to  do  it. 

Why  did  Howard  make  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  visit- 
ing the  poor  in  prisons  ?  Did  he  do  it  because  he  saw  that  so  he 
might  achieve  for  himself  praise  or  glory  ?  No  ;  he  did  it  because 
that  ever-springing  sentiment  of  love  in  his  soul  which  was  but  an 
emanation  from  God  made  it  necessary  to  himself  that  he  should  do 
it.  It  was  a  feeling  in  him  of  undying  pity  and  sorrow  that  led 
him  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  and  the  needy.  And 
every  man  on  earth  who  is  never  weary  of  well-doing — of  instruct- 
ing the  ignorant ;  of  pardoning  those  that  com€  short  of  duty ;  of 
letting  his  sympathy  and  help  brace  up  those  who  are  in  the  battle 
of  life — every  such  man  is  in  himself  the  spark,  the  analogue  of  that 
nature  which  is  central  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Benevolence,  love 
which  administers  for  the  good  of  men — that  is  God  all  over,  from 
center  to  circumference,  and  from  circumference  back  to  center 
again.  Goodness — a  Goodness  that  will  make  men  pure,  and  true, 
and  happy — by  smiles  if  it  can,  but  if  it  cannot  by  smiles,  then  by- 
frowns  ;  and  if  not  by  frowns,  then  by  pains — that  is  the  nature  of 
God.  He  works  by  pain  as  well  as  by  pleasure ;  for  pain  is  but  the 
right  hand  of  love,  working  for  the  recuperation  of  the  sick.  And  so  ho 
fills  the  heaven  with  goodness,  and  is  filling,  little  by  little,  the  earth 
with  goodness.     He  is  putting  down  the  wrong,  and  establishing 


326  THE  GLOBY  OF  JEHOVAH. 

the  right.  He  is  lifting  the  race  upward,  and  carrying  them  onward, 
by  joy  and  by  pain,  by  pleasure  and  by  sorrow,  by  reason  and  by 
aflection.  By  every  means,  he  is  striving  to  unfold  the  race,  and 
bring  them  into  the  summer  of  divine  life,  where  they,  too,  shall 
become  free  and  powerful,  because  good. 

It  is  this  same  freedom  which  God  claims  for  himself  when  he 
says,  "  I  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  I  will 
shoAV  mercy  on  whom  I  will  show  mercy" — it  is  this  same  freedom 
which  we  call  mercy  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Love,  goodness,  com- 
passion, shown  even  at  the  price  of  pain — that  is  God's  nature. 

As  these  were  the  best  views  for  Moses  in  his  time,  so  they  are 
the  best  views  for  men  yet.  The  lower  men  are  in  the  development 
of  their  faculties,  the  more  you  will  be  obliged  to  use  motives  ad- 
dressed to  their  senses — the  more  you  will  be  obliged  to  use  motives 
that  are  of  a  coercive,  force-bearing  character.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  higher  men  are,  the  more  you  can  bring  to  bear  i;pon  them 
subtler,  finer  inducements  to  right  and  dissuasions  from  wrong.  And 
the  latter  influences  are  the  more  effectual.  Mere  force  is  not  suf- 
ficient to  reclaim  men.  A  malign  God  will  never  make  a  virtuous 
world.  A  stern  and  vengeful  God  will  never  make  men  afraid  to 
sin,  to  any  great  extent.  It  certainly  will  not  draw  them  back  when 
they  have  fallen  into  sin. 

The  child  has  gone  wrong,  and  the  father's  brow  is  clothed  with 
wrath  ;  his  pride  is  wounded ;  his  sense  of  right  is  outraged ;  and 
he  comes  down  on  the  trembling  child  as  the  thunder-storm  comes 
down  on  the  tender  herb :  and  the  child  braces  himself  up,  and  en- 
■  dures  as  best  he  can  ;  but  he  is  not  reformed.  On  the  contrary,  he 
is  driven  off"  further  and  further.  But  when  the  father  is  gone,  and 
the  child  lingers  in  the  distance,  and  the  mother  hovers  near  him,  she 
gently  puts  her  arm  about  the  child,  and  draws  him  tenderly  aside, 
and  with  sweet  voice  speaks  to  him ; — he  breaks  down,  and  in  a 
torrent  of  sorrow  pours  out  his  confession  into  her  bosom.  Ah  !  it 
is  the  mother's  heart  that  subdues  him.  The  father's  sternness 
could  not  do  it.  Justice  could  not  do  it.  Hardness  only  drove  him 
further  away. 

I  do  not  deny  that  there  is  a  place  where  there  must  be  pain, 
and  where  there  must  be  an  administration  of  suffering  ;  but  I 
say  that  all  administrations  of  suffering  are  void  unless  they  are 
preceded  and  superseded  by  the  recuperative  and  reformatory 
influences  of  goodness  and  love.  You  cannot  make  a  household 
good  unless  you  can  love  it  into  goodness.  You  cannot  make 
a  community  good  unless  you  can  love  it  into  goodness.  You  can- 
not make  bad  men  good  unless  you  can  love  them  into  goodness.    I 


THi:  GLOB  I  OF  JEUOVAH.  327 

do  not  think  that  it  is  in  tlie  power  of  penitentiaries  to  save  men,  as 
long  as  they  are  under  the  management  of  selfish,  grasping  office- 
holders. I  do  not  think  that  one  poor  starveling  chaplain  can  save 
from  five  to  eight  hundred  men  as  long  as  the  money  which  should 
be  applied  for  their  reformation  and  evangelization  goes  to  reward 
politicians  for  their  party  service.  I  have  no  doubt  that  much  of  the 
mismanagement  of  our  penitentiaries  is  the  result  of  inexperience 
and  weakness — that  weakness  which  is  meant  when  it  is  said  that  the 
law  was  weak  through  the  flesh  /  but  when  I  look  at  the  way 
in  which  we  deal  with  criminals,  I  feel  that  there  is  no  other  such 
humiliating  and  pity-inspiring  spectacle  of  the  meagerness  of  the 
Boul  of  man  in  the  great  recuperative  element  of  love,  as  is  mani- 
fested in  our  attempts  to  restore  to  the  way  of  virtue,  men  who  have 
wandered  into  the  path  of  vice. 

There  is  only  one  place  that  the  gate  of  heaven  is  but  a  hand's- 
breadth  from ;  and  that  is  the  family.  It  is  there  that  the  father 
and  mother  make  sufi:ering  for  the  sake  of  saving  sufiering.  It  is 
there  that  the  parent  bears  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  child.  It  is 
there  that  the  stripes  are  laid  upon  the  parent's  back  by  which  the 
child's  trangressions  are  healed.  But  outside  of  the  household  how 
wretched  is  the  attempt  of  men  to  save  their  fellow-men  !  When  a 
man  has  once  done  wrong,  he  is  kicked  down  the  street,  and  whis- 
pered about  and  hooted  at,  and  can  no  more  get  back  to  honor  and  re- 
spectability than  a  gull  can  fly  against  a  tornado.  The  wrong-doer 
is  everywhere  met  with  a  spirit  of  revenge.  On  every  side  are  the 
symbols  of  destruction.  There  is  the  flail,  and  there  is  the  sword. 
There  is  also  the  cross — but  it  is  the  victim  that  hangs  on  the  cross, 
and  not  the  Substitute.  And  what  we  need  more  than  anything 
else,  in  our  laws,  in  our  institutions,  and  in  our  public  sentiment,  for 
our  cities,  and  towns,  and  villages,  is  this  view  of  the  character  of 
God  which  ascribes  to  it  goodness,  mercy,  gentleness,  kindness.  "We 
have  tried  cruelty,  and  it  has  done  little  good ;  we  have  tried  acepb 
and  unflinching  justice,  and  it  has  not  been  adequate  to  the  emer- 
gency. We  have  tried  views  of  God  which  put  no  intensity  upon 
purity  and  goodness,  and  they  have  done  good  in  some  directions, 
and  have  done  harm  in  other  directions.  What  we  want  is  a  view 
of  God  which  makes  him,  not  one  that  does  not  cai-e  for  sin,  but  one 
that  does  care  for  it,  that  hates  it,  that  strives  against  it,  and  that 
sets  his  heart  and  all  the  enginery  of  the  universe  against  it,  not  for 
the  sake  of  tormenting  men,  but  for  the  sake  of  saving  them.  We 
want  a  view  of  God  which  makes  him  one  who  uses  pain  as  a  rem- 
edy for  evil,  and  who  punishes  men  for  their  good.  Looking  through 
all  the  endless  ages  of  eternity,  there  is  no  point  where  God  can  be 


328  THB  GLOB  ¥  OF  JEHO  YAH, 

happy  while  he  sits  brooding  upon  immedicable  pain.  Somewhere 
let  us  hope  the  Universe  will  reach  the  glorious  limit  of  suffering. 
"  There  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying,  neither 
shall  there  be  any  more  pain :  for  the  former  things  are  passed 
away." 

Every  year,  the  sun,  that  strives  all  Summer  with  reluctant  fruit, 
at  length  conquers  and  turns  the  acid  to  sugar. 

But,  like  all  other  things  it  comes  latest.  The  apples  which  keep 
through  the  AVinter  are  those  that  do  not  ripen  until  November. 
Those  that  ripen  in  June  perish  by  Autumn.  The  apples  that  are 
the  longest  lived  and  the  most  profitable,  are  the  slowest  in  coming 
to  ripeness.  And  let  us  hope  that  the  long  Summer  in  which  such 
abundant  fruits  have  been  produced,  and  this  Autumn  in  which  such 
glorious  hues  have  been  evolved,  shall  not  be  sacrificed  to  mere  be- 
nevolence. But  may  there  be  justice,  fidelity,  love,  kindness,  recu- 
peration, long-suffering,  patience,  to  the  end,  that  men  may  at  last 
be  rounded  up  out  of  their  mistakes  and  imperfections  into  the  glo- 
rious light  and  liberty  of  the  sons  •£  God. 

And  now,  if  you  do  not  understand  anything  else  about  this  ser- 
mon, I  beg  you  to  understand  one  thing — namely,  as  you  go  back 
to  your  homes  to-day,  and  as  you  go  to  your  business  to-morrow,  he 
will  be  most  like  God  who  knows  how  to  exercise  the  most  of  benev- 
olence with  discretion.  That  is  the  practical  application — more  dis- 
creet benevolence;  more  long-suffering  kindness;  more  fruitful 
gentleness ;  more  patience  for  others,  and  less  patience  with  your- 
self. You  will  be  near  to  God,  not  by  the  frequency  of  the  times 
that  you  pray  in  your  closet,  but  by  the  amount  of  love  that  your 
heart  is  capable  of  generating,  and  by  the  amount  of  happiness  which 
shall  spring  from  your  conception  of  the  fidelity  and  the  majesty  of 
divine  mercy. 


te:e  globf  of  jeuoyae.  329 

prayer  before  the  sermon. 

We  thank  thee,  our  Father,  since  we  cannot  find  our  way  to  thee,  that 
thou  art  pleased  to  condescend  unto  us.  Though  we  cannot  understand 
thee,  nor  compass  thy  being,  we  do  feel  thy  presence,  and  know  something 
of  thy  power.  And  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  we  are  beloved  of  thee ;  and 
that,  though  we  are  yet  children  afar  off,  we  are  under  way  toward  that 
perfect  knowledge  and  that  perfected  being  whereby  we  shall  see  God,  and 
know  him  even  as  we  are  known  of  him. 

And  now,  as  we  grope  in  darkness,  how  much  do  we  need  the  cheering 
revelation  of  thy  presence  to  us !  We  need  to  feel  thine  hand,  though  we 
may  not  be  able  to  trace  it  nor  grasp  it  It  is  a  joy  and  a  comfort  to  believe 
that  thine  hand  is  our  best  shield ;  that  we  are  protected  on  every  side;  that 
therein  are  the  resources  of  might  which  are  for  the  support  of  our  weak- 
ness; that  there  is  vigilance  ia  protection,  and  fidelity  in  love.  All  that  we 
need  as  we  move  along  the  lines  of  our  circumscribed  being  we  find  in  thee. 
We  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  thee.  And  though  we  cannot 
understand  it ;  though  our  thoughts  soon  reach  the  bound  and  barrier,  and 
all  beyond  is  cold  and  darkness,  we  believe  that  justice  and  judgment  are 
the  habitations  of  thy  throne,  and  that  when  we  see  thee  as  thou  art,  not 
only  shall  we  be  satisfied,  but  every  power  of  our  being  will  be  stimulated, 
and  we  shall  be  lifted  up  to  praise  and  to  glorify  thy  name,  and  to  rejoice  in 
thee  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  grant  some  gleams  of  this  knowledge  to 
us  even  here.  Grant  that  there  may  be  hours  in  which  the  transfiguration 
shall  take  place  again  before  our  sight.  Grant  that  we  may  have  some  dis- 
cernment of  the  reality  of  the  great  spiritual  realm  where.that  true  life  is  of 
which  this  is  but  the  symbol.  And  we  pray  that  we  may  hear  the  voice  that 
speaks  to  us,  although  it  may  be  inaudible  to  our  outward  ear,  and  that  we 
may  feel  the  influence  that  comes  forth  from  thee.  As  to  them  that  are 
afar  off  the  garden  sends  out  invitation  in  all  its  sweetness  and  fragrance, 
60  may  there  come  wafted  to  us  that  are  journeying  off  the  shore  of  the 
heavenly  land  those  sweet  odors  which  shall  tell  us  of  that  which  we  can- 
not see,  that  we  may  know  that  it  is  true,  and  that  we  may  have  firm  con- 
viction and  joy  of  things  that  are  invisible  but  real. 

We  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins.  Have  compassion  upon  us,  not 
according  to  our  desert,  nor  accoiding  to  our  asking,  nor  according  to  our 
reforming  power.  Take  the  measure  of  thy  bounty  and  goodness  from 
thyself;  and  according  to  the  multitude  of  thine  own  tender  mercies  have 
compassion  upon  us,  and  forgive  us  our  trangressions,  and  heal  our  back- 
slidings,  and  draw  us  more  and  more  with  the  cords  of  love  to  thyself,  and 
make  us  more  and  more  susceptible  of  thine  administration.  May  we  not 
dwell  where  force  must  needs  reach  us.  May  we  rise  more  and  more  into 
that  higher  realm  where  thou  canst,  by  hope,  and  by  love,  and  by  all  the 
inspiration  of  faith,  guide  us.  Yea,  by  the  beck  of  thine  own  eye,  guide  us. 
We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  that  we  may  live  as  children  in  the  presence  of 
their  parents,  where  to  do  their  will  is  joy. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us  this  day  thy  special  presence,  and 
administer  to  all  according  to  their  need,  and  according  to  thy  greatness 
and  goodness.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  help  those  who  are,  under  much  dis- 
couragement, maintaining  the  battle  of  life  against  adverse  circumstances, 
against  evil  dispositions,  and  against  trials  multiform  and  long  continued 
We  pray  that  they  may  endure  to  the  end.  And  though  often  discomfited, 
may  they  never  be  defeated.  Though  cast  down,  may  they  never  be  des- 
troyed, nor  think  themselves  destroyed.  Whatever  may  be  the  trouble, 
O  let  none  call  out  as  thou  didst,  My  Ood!  my  QodI  why  heist  thou  forsaken 


330  th:e  globt  of  jehovae. 

me  f  May  every  one  yet  feel  that  there  is  an  all-helping,  all-loving,  all- 
forgi-^ing,  never- forgetting  Heart. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord !  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  every  one  may 
feel  that  God  is  his  strength,  and  will  never  leave  him  nor  forsake  him. 
And  if  there  are  any  who  are  afar  off,  and  are  slowly  and  toilsomely  ascend- 
ing the  steep  way  down  which  they  have  gone,  amidst  broken  resolutions, 
amidst  discouragements,  amidst  shame  and  mortified  pride,  amidst  all 
environments  and  hindrances,  may  God  be  their  strength  and  their  exceed- 
ing great  reward. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  be  near  to  those  who  are  oppressed  by  adverse 
circumstances;  who  are  shut  in  on  tho  right  hand  and  on  the  left.  We  pray 
that  thou  wilt  grant  to  them  such  rest  fcnat  they  may  bi>  content  in  the 
midst  of  thy  providences.  Whatever  they  are,  may  they  not  be  discour- 
aged from  exertion.  And  yet,  we  pray  that  the  rebound  may  not  be  per- 
pertually  jarring  and  dissatisfying  them. 

Oh!  that  men  might  learn  to  cast  their  care  upon  the  Lord,  who  careth 
lor  them.  Let  us  not  be  scared  away  from  this  trust  by  the  consciousness  of 
our  unworthiness.  If  only  they  might  put  their  burdens  on  thee  who  are 
worthy  to  do  it,  who  oould  do  it ?  Grant  that  ws-  may  have  such  faith  in 
God's  largeness  and  goodness  that  though  we  know  that  we  are  unworthy 
and  sinful  we  may  venture  to  put  our  care  upon  him,  because  he  loves  us 
and  cares  for  us.  And  in  respect  to  our  children  and  our  friends  who  are 
absent  and  scattered,  whatever  may  be  our  anxiety  and  solicitude,  grant 
that  we  may  be  able  to  ease  ourselves  in  thy  presence,  and  to  know  that  the 
smile  of  God  dissipates  trou  ble  even  as  the  coming  sun  scatters  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord !  that  we  may  never  be  weary  in  well-doing.  May 
none  that  have  girded  themselves  for  thy  service  think  it  a  vain  thing  that 
they  have  served  the  Lord.  May  none  that  have  sown  seed  and  waited 
long,  yield  to  despondency,  and  withhold  their  hand.  May  none  that  have 
looked  with  eager  hope  and  expectation  for  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  and 
seen  it  not,  be  tempted  to  intermit,  and  go  away,  selOshly  seeking  after  their 
own  comfort.  May  thy  servants  go  forth  laboring  in  thy  cause,  workers 
together  with  God  to  the  end  of  life,  leaving  with  thee  the  issue.  May  they 
be  faithful,  steadfast,  immovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  forasmuch  as  they  know  that  their  labor  shall  not  be  in  vain. 

And  grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  those 
that  are  in  thy  presence  this  morning,  children  of  sorrow.  Wilt  thou  pour 
balm  upon  all  wounded  hearts. 

May  all  those  who  reproach  themselves  with  duties  unfulfilled,  and  witlt- 
kindnesses  unrequited  toward  God  and  toward  men,  receive  comfort.  May 
those  who  are  conscious  of  wrongs  done  to  dear  ones  that  have  gone  from 
them,  and  who  are  now  beyond  their  reach,  be  consoled  of  thee.  Be  with 
those  who  mourn  from  wounds  that  will  not  be  healed.  Be  a  very  present 
help  in  time  of  trouble  to  those  who  are  in  anguish  of  spirit  by  reason  of 
their  own  short-comings.  May  they  know  that  in  thy  presence  is  great  joy 
and  delight.  Spread  abroad  thy  wings  over  them ;  and  m  thee  may  they 
find  that  rest  which  they  cannot  find  in  themselves.  Oh  I  that  men  would 
turn  away  from  these  broken  cisterns — their  own  hearts — and  find  rest  in 
God,  the  Refuge  that  never  fails. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  be  near  to  those  who  in  the  midst  of  life's 
duties  are  bearing  its  burdens.  Fulfill  to  them  thy  promise.  May  they 
come  and  learn  of  thee  in  meekness  and  humility  that  all  burdens  shall  be 
light,  and  that  all  yokes  shall  be  easy. 

We  pray  for  those  who  are  growing  infirm,  and  upon  whose  heads  rest 
the  snows  of  years.  Will  the  Lord  comfort  them,  and  prepare  them  for  that 


TEE  GLOB  T  OF  JEEO  YAH.  331 

change  which  ia  very  near,  and  which,  when  it  comes,  shall  be  but  passing 
from  glory  to  glory. 

We  pray  for  all  those  who  worship  with  us  to-day,  strangers  in  a  strange 
place.  May  they  still  hear  the  familiar  accents  of  the  loving  voice  of  God. 
May  they  in  this  sanctuary  f  tel  that  they  are  in  their  Father's  house,  and  at 
home.  And  during  this  hour  give  them  rest,  and  joy  in  believing.  And  we 
pray  that  thou  wilt  remember  all  those  who  are  worshiping  everywhere 
to-day,  of  every  name.  Wilt  thou  deliver  from  their  bondage  any  that  are 
in  error.  And  give  more  perfect  light  to  those  who  know  but  little  of  the 
truth.  And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  wherever  the  name  of  Jesus  shall  be 
preached  to-day,  it  may  be  efficacious  in  the  salvation  of  souls.  May  the 
hearts  of  men  be  melted  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel.  Grant  that 
men  may  be  sanctified  by  the  truth.  Grant  that  thy  people  may  be  more 
and  more  strengthened  in  those  ways  which  shall  fit  them  to  promote  the 
interests  of  thy  cause  and  kingdom. 

We  pray  that  this  nation  may  be  purified.  May  our  laws,  and  our  civil 
institutions,  and  our  seminaries  of  learning,  and  all  the  organizations  in 
our  land,  be  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of  justice  and  purity  and  truth  and 
mercy. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  fulfill  the  promises  which  thou  hast  made  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  exalt  the  valleys,  and 
bring  down  the  high  hills ;  that  thou  wilt  make  the  rough  places  smooth, 
and  the  crooked  places  straight.  Even  so.  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  The 
earth  suffers  and  groans  yet.  War  is  abroad,  and  cruelty  hath  despotic 
sway,  and  the  nations  sigh,  and  look  everywhere  for  their  deliverer.  Art 
not  thou,  O  God  of  ages!  yet  the  deliverer  of  mankind?  Come  forth,  we 
beseech  of  thee,  and  let  light  come  with  thee,  that  all  ignorance  and  super- 
stition may  flee  away,  and  that  all  men  may  know  their  birth-right,  and 
that  they  may  rise  up  and  find  themselves  so  strong  in  God  that  no  power 
shall  be  able  to  oppress  them. 

And  so  may  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  And  may  he  reign  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise.  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  bless  the  word  spoken  this  morning.  Wilt  thou 
grant  that  it  may  take  hold  of  our  heart,  of  our  understanding,  and  of  our 
life.  Thou  art  still  the  unwearied  Governor.  Thou  art  still  administering 
for  the  universal  good.  All  pains  and  all  penalties  are  but  so  many  reme- 
dies in  thy  hand.  Even  so,  thou  Physician,  behold  the  world  as  sick,  need- 
ing both  the  knife  and  the  draught.  Nevertheless,  cut  short  the  day;  and 
grant  that  the  bright  millennial  time  may  come,  when  former  things  shall 
have  passed  away,  when  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  be  done,  and  when  the 
new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in  which  dwell  righteousness  shall  have 
come.  And  to  thy  name,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  shall  be  the  praise  for- 
evermore.    Amen, 


XVII. 

Soul-Building. 


SOUL-BUILDING. 


•'  But  let  every  man  take  beed  how  he  buildeth  thereupon.    For  other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesua  Christ."  -1  Cob, 

in.  la  Ji. 


I  have  read  this  passage  as  a  part  of  the  opening  service.  It  is 
highly  figurative,  and  the  figure  is  Grecian.  The  apostle  was  writing 
to  the  Christianized  Jews  at  Corinth — one  of  the  most  magnificent 
cities  of  Greece — second  only  to  Athens  in  its  manifold  exhibitions 
of  art.  Both  of  them  were  conspicuous  and  preeminent  for  their 
admirable  structures,  for  their  carved  statues,  and  for  their  altars. 
Whatever  art  could  do  had  been  done  to  beautify  these  cities,  and 
to  express  in  the  language  of  beauty  their  reverence  for  their  gods. 

But,  at  the  very  same  time  that  so  much  was  lavished  upon 
temples,  very  little  was  given  to  domestic  structures.  Nothino-^ 
probably,  would  more  disappoint  us  than  a  visit  to  Athens  in  its 
palmy  days.  To  have  gone  there  on  one  of  those  resplendent  days 
in  Spring,  when  all  the  air  was  balm,  when  peace  seemed  declared 
between  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  when  the  storm  had  gone  and 
concord  reigned,  standing  afar  off,  seeing  the  Acropolis  and  its 
treasures,  and  glinting  in  the  distance  the  various  temples,  hearing 
the  shouts  of  the  procession  as  it  moved  to  and  fro,  and  beholding 
the  pale  smoke  of  the  sacrifices  as  it  ascended  in  the  air,  one  would 
have  thought  that  he  was  drawing  near  to  a  heavenly  city,  so  beau- 
tiful would  it  seem.  But  let  the  skies  lower,  and  the  rains  descend  • 
let  his  errands  require  that  he  should  thread  the  city  on  foot,  and 
the  vision  of  glory  would  soon  disappear.  The  streets  were  without 
sidewalks,  without  pavements,  and  without  sewerage,  except  that 
which  nature  provided.  Offal,  filth,  mud  when  it  was  wet,  and 
choking  dust  when  it  was  dry,  squalor,  huts  seldom  more  than  a 
single  story  high,  and  built  of  wood,  scarcely  ever  of  stone,  thatched 
often,  inconvenient,  not  ventilated,  stenchful — these  were  the  things 
that  he  would  have  met  with  on  every  hand.  Hovels  the  citizens 
of  Athens  lived  in.     Only  their  gods  lived  in  marble  palaces.     And 

Pttn-dat  Evening,   July  2,  1871.     Lesson  :   1  Cob.  HI.  1-17.    Hymns   (Plymouth 
Ck)Uection)  :  Nos.  270,  007,  LiG2. 


336  SOUL-BUILDING, 

so,  all  around  about  the  city  he  would  have  found,  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  magnificent  architecture,  structures  the  most  worthless. 

Not  long  before  the  apostle  wrote  this  epistle,  the  great  fire 
which  took  place  in  Athens  under  the  consulate,  I  think  of  Mum- 
mius,  had  destroyed  the  residences  and  the  other  common  buildings  ; 
and  it  is  possible  that  the  ajiostle  had  this  fact  in  his  mind  when  he 
spoke  thus  in  the  context  which  I  have  read  to  you  : 

"  If  any  man  build  upon  this  foundation  gold,  silver,  precious  stones, 
wood,  hay,  stubble  ;  every  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest:  for  the  day 
shall  declare  it,  because  it  shall  be  revealed  by  fire ;  and  the  fire  shall  try 
every  man's  work,  of  what  sort  it  is." 

Here  is  the  foundation,  Jesus  Christ.  See  that  you  have,  at  least, 
a  solid  foundation.  And  then  take  care  how  you  build  on  this 
foundation.  If  you  build  on  it  as  multitudes  build  all  about  here — 
some  with  mud  and  straw  ;  some  with  straw  for  thatching  merely 
and  some  with  wood — you  will  take  the  consequences  in  the  day  of 
trial.  If  on  this  foundation  you  jDut  buildings  of  precious  stones — 
not  gems,  but  porphyry,  or  precious  marble — the  consequences  will 
overtake  you  in  the  day  of  trial.  If  you  build  on  this  foundation, 
you  are  right  so  far  ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  you  should  build 
a  right  superstructure  as  well  as  have  a  right  foundation.  It  is  nee- 
cessary  that  you  should  build  solidly.  Then,  when  the  conflagration 
comes  your  house  will  stand.  But  if  built  of  these  inferior  materials, 
when  the  conflagration  comes  your  foundation  may  not  be  burned 
up,  but  your  superstructure  will  be. 

"  Every  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest.'^ 

It  shall  be  brought  to  proof  It  shall  be  seen  what  it  is  made  of. 
"  Because  it  shall  be  revealed  by  fire ;  and  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's 
work  of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  man's  work  abide  which  he  hath  built 
thereupon  [that  is,  upon  the  foundation],  he  shall  receive  a  reward.  If 
any  man's  work  shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss  ;  but  he  himself  shall 
be  saved  ;  yet  so  as  by  fire." 

That  is  to  say,  when  a  man  has  reared  a  structure  that  cannot 
stand  the  flame,  he  seeing  it  coming,  may  rush  out  of  his  house  and 
into  the  street  ;  but  the  house  will  be  burnt,  though  he  may  be 
saved.  So  the  apostle  enjoins  care  and  prudence  upon  those  to 
whom  he  writes,  saying, 

"  Let  every  man  take  heed  how  he  bulldeth  thereupon.  For  other  founda- 
tion can  no  man  lay  than  that  ia  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ." 

What,  then,  is  meant  by  Jesus  Christ  as  a  foundation  ?  A  good 
deal  more  than  we  shall  be  able  to  make  plain,  of  course.  It  does 
not  mean  literally  that  he  is  any  man's  foundation,  any  more  than 
otherwhere  it  means  that  he  is  eaten  in  the  bread  that  is  broken, 
or  drunken  in  the  wine  that  is  poured  forth.  Nor  are  we  to  sup- 
pose that  any  special  doctrine  which  has  been  wrought  out  by  men's 
thought  is  indispensable  as  a  foundation  to  a  Christian  character  and 


SOUL-BUILDING.  337 

« 

to  Christian  hope.  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  is  indispens- 
able ;  but  truth  may  assume  many  forms.  As  it  passed  through  one 
kind  of  understanding  or  another,  it  will  take  on  different  shapes,  and 
will  be  in  different  projoortions.  And  although  a  man  may  not 
stand  exactly  on  the  orthodox  formula,  or  in  the  orthodox  church  of 
one  or  another  sect,  doctrinally  considered,  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  still 
may  be  building  on  Christ  as  a  foundation.  For  I  apprehend  that 
Christ's  name  is,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  not  only  the  name  of  a 
historic  personage,  who  had  his  individual  peculiarities,  but  a  name 
that  groups  around  about  it  whatever  there  is  that  is  excellent  in 
morals,  in  piety  and  in  spirituality,  and  whatever  is  possible  in 
humanity.  We  are  instructed  that  these  elements  exist  in  a  higher 
form  in  him  than  in  any  other ;  and  we  are  to  build  on  Jesus  Christ, 
regarded  as  the  sum  and  perfection  of  all  admirable  qualities  :  not 
upon  any  particular  scheme  nor  upon  any  particular  method  which 
theology  has  been  fond  of  attempting  to  interpret,  but  upon  a 
distinct  character,  or  the  conception  of  a  distinct  character  such  as 
was  set  forth  in  Jesus  Christ.  i 

What,  then,  are  we  to  lay  down  for  a  foimdation  ?  Is  it  to  be 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  very  God  ?  I  believe  that  to  be  true. 
And  yet  I  can  conceive  that  one  may  build  on  Christ  in  such  a  way 
as  to  be  saved,  without  having  the  same  clarity  of  view  and  the 
same  firmness  of  vision  that  I  have  on  that  subject.  That  is  to  say, 
the  question  of  how  much,  whether  of  quality  or  of  quantity,  is  requir- 
ed to  reach  the  measure  of  divinity,  neither  you  nor  I  can  settle ;  and 
merely  saying  that  Christ  is  God  goes  but  a  very  little  way.  When 
you  analyze  it  and  look  at  it  closely,  you  come  into  a  region  that 
is  nebulous.  If  Christ  is  to  you  so  much  divine  that  he  becomes  to 
you  an  object  of  imitation,  of  absolute  trust,  of  faith,  and  of  all  the 
affection  that  your  heart  is  susceptible  of  feeling;  if  he  is  in  such  a 
sense  your  model  and  your  leader  that  you  are  willing  to  commit  to 
him  all  that  you  have  to  commit  to  any  one,  you  cannot  rise  higher 
than  that.  And  while  you  may  not  theologically  and  technically 
accept  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  emotively  and  practically  you  do 
accept  him  so  far  as  you  could  if  you  crowned  him  with  the  name 
of  the  Divine.  It  is  with  the  heart  that  a  man  believes  unto  salva- 
tion. 

Jesus  Christ  is  presented  to  us,  I  apprehend,  as  the  foundation  on 
which  we  are  to  build  effectually,  not  merely  because  he  descended 
from  above  and  represented,  as  far  as  it  could  be  done  through  the 
economy  of  the  flesh  and  the  world,  certain  definite  ideas  of  charac- 
ter, and  of  the  relations  of  men  to  God,  and  of  the  directions  in 
which  duty  lies,  and  of  the  pattern  of  true  living,  but  because  he 


338  SOUL-BUILDING. 

was  the  perfect  epitome  and  embodiment  of  that  which  man  should 
aspire  to  be  in  order  that  he  may  dwell  with  God.  He  is  the 
foundation  on  which  we  are  to  build,  because  he  represents  human 
nature  on  every  side.  He  was  the  most  perfect  model  of  what  man 
should  be.  He  was  the  best  example,  I  suppose,  that  was  ever 
known  in  regard  to  habits  of  labor  and  of  rest,  in  regard  to  virtuous 
health  and  temperance  in  all  things,  and  in  regard  to  that  elasticity  and 
joyousness  which  come  from  normal  and  regulated  activity.  I  doubt 
not  that  Jesus  presented  himself  to  those  around  about  him  as  a 
noble  specimen,  physically  and  socially,  of  what  true  manhood  should 
be.  In  so  far  as  we  can  understand  the  character  and  the  relations 
of  Christ,  no  one  can  be  conceived  of  as  superior  to  him,  or  as  sur- 
passing him  in'  all  his  associations  with  men.  He  was  the  highest 
exemplification  conceivable  in  all  those  relations  which  a  noble  na- 
ture can  sustain  to  his  fellows.  The  imagination  cannot  surpass  in 
its  conceptions  that  which  was  in  him.  Nor,  indeed,  can  any  one 
mind  compass  the  whole  of  it.  The  effect  of  studying  the  life  of 
Christ  is,  that  after  you  have  devoted  weeks  and  weeks  and  weeks 
to  one  pliase  of  his  character,  and  you  are  called  to  write  it  out, 
when  it  is  finished,  the  impression  on  your  mind  is  that  you  are 
just  ready  to  begin  on  that  point ;  and  you  throw  away  your 
manuscript,  and  try  again.  And  you  gather  from  the  Gospels  all 
the  materials  that  you  can,  and  turn  them  in  every  way  to  make  a 
more  massive  and  a  more  perfect  representation ;  and  at  last  it 
flashes  upon  your  mind  that  you  are  attempting  to  exhaust  that 
which  in  its  nature  is  inexhaustible  and  infinite. 

Who  can  take  an  opal  and  paint  it  ?  It  is  only  so  much  as  you 
can  at  one  point  see  that  you  can  paint.  You  cannot  paint  the  flash, 
nor  the  luster,  nor  the  varying  colors.  And  you  can  only  conceive 
of  actual  life.  You  cannot  take  in  such  a  nature  as  Christ's,  with 
all  its  relations  to  heaven  above  and  to  the  earth  beneath,  and  all  its 
social  and  esthetic  qualities,  and  all  its  divine  elements,  not  simply 
because  they  elude  your  grasp,  running  out  beyond  analysis  and  re- 
search, but  because  they  are  so  combined,  so  changeable,  so  con- 
stantly coming  and  going,  with  various  phases  and  in  various  ways, 
that  no  man  can  give  the  whole  of  it.  There  is  always  more  ;  and 
Avhcn  that  is  expressed  there  is  still  more.     There  is  no  end  to  it. 

Whatever,  then,  one  would  seek  for  in  morality,  or  in  virtue,  or 
in  affection,  or  in  refinements  of  art,  or  in  spirituality,  or  in  devo- 
tion, or  in  submission  to  God,  or  in  the  most  noble  passions,  or  in 
endurance  to  the  end,  or  in  the  grandeur  ot  faith,  or  in  inspiration, 
you  shall  find  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  not  enough  to  adopt  him  as  a 
pattern  to  follow,  or  to  make  him  a  foundation  on  which  to  build, 


SOUL-BUILDING.  339 

simply  in  the  lower  forms  of  morality.  We  are  to  take  the  whole 
character  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  comprehend  it.  That  is  the 
model  on  which  we  are  to  proceed.  It  is  the  foundation  on  which 
we  are  to  build.  But  that  does  not  exhaust  the  duty  which  is  im- 
posed upon  us.  Although  building  on  this  foundation  will  go  far 
and  do  much,  to  my  mind  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of  buildino-  on 
Christ  is  to  take  a  mind  just  like  God's  and  put  it  upon  God's  mind 
as  its  foundation. 

"Mystic,"  you  will  say.  Yes,  mystic, undoubtedly.  All  attempts 
to  interpret  into  philosophical  language  that  which  in  its  very  na- 
ture is  spiritual,  effluent,  and  therefore  inexpressible,  involve  an 
element  of  mysticism.  And  so  the  attempt  to  build  yourself  con- 
sciously on  an  invisible  but  living  God,  so  that  your  understanding 
shall  be  underlaid  by  conscience,  the  moral  sense,  all  the  elements 
of  spiritual  life,  and  the  realization  of  the  divine  presence — the  at- 
tempt to  build  on  Christ  personally  in  this  way,  and  to  be  fitted  to 
him  on  every  side  of  your  nature,  is  the  highest  conception,  it  seems 
to  me,  of  character-building.  In  that  way  one  certainly  has  Christ 
for  a  foundation,  just  as  I  have  explained.  When  all  the  qualities 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  attained,  and  assumed  to  be  models,  in 
the  very  form  in  which  he  developed  them,  and  you  attempt  to  build 
on  his  conceived  character  as  your  foundation,  you  do  well ;  but 
certainly,  in  a  much  higher  sense,  there  is  revealed  to  you  the  living 
Saviour  as  Immanuel — God  with  us.  You  may  attain  to  a  state  in 
which  Christ  shall  be  with  you  consciously,  so  that  day  by  day  you 
shall  be  sensible  of  an  absolute  and  living  presence,  and  that  which 
aforetime  you  looked  at  speculatively,  you  shall  now  look  at  as 
present,  as  living  in  you,  thus  placing  your  life  upon  his,  so  that  in 
a  more  transcendent  sense  than  in  any  other  Jesus  Christ  shall  be 
your  foundation. 

Now  says  the  Apostle,  "  Let  every  man  take  heed,  though  he 
have  this  foundation,  how  he  builds  on  it."  There  be  many  who 
say,  "  We,  too,  build  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  say  that  as 
he  has  represented  certain  great  historical  elements,  and  as  he  has 
represented  certain  universal  human  elements,  we  build  on  those  el- 
ements. You  call  them  Christ.  We  call  them  aestheticism,  or  phil- 
osophy, or  science,  or  what  not.  These  amount  to  the  same  thing 
which  you  mean  by  the  name  Christ.  A  man,"  they  go  on  to  say, 
"may  be  built  on  a  right  foundation,  even  though  he  may  not  be  built 
on  Christ,  technically  so  called,  by  building  on  those  things  which 
you  say,  when  concentrated,  went  to  form  the  historical,  or  supposed 
historical,  Christ."  But  the  Apostle  says,  "Let  every  man  take 
heed  fww  he  builds  on  this  foundation."   I  apprehend  that  a  man  may 


340  SOUL-BUILDING. 

Lold  extreme  views,  leading  almost  to  the  verge  of  skepticism,  and 
yet  have  something  of  Christ  Jesus.  A  man  may  be  saved  so  as  by 
fire.  But  take  care  how  you  build  on  this  glorious  foundation — this 
living  Christ,  or  Christ  as  he  has  been  historically .  developed  and 
philosophically  conceived.  Be  careful  that  you  do  not  waste  that 
which  you  have  of  Christ  by  speculation.  If  you  take  the  element 
of  divinity  away  from  him ;  if  you  diminish  him  ;  if  you  enfeeble  his 
glory  and  grandeur ;  if  you  make  him  other  than  the  Saviour  of  the 
world ;  if  you  substitute  philosophy  for  the  reality  of  personal  ex- 
perience ;  if  instead  of  faith  and  love  and  hope  you  rest  upon  the 
lower  forms  of  morality — good  conduct  and  the  like — then  take  heed 
how  you  build.  You  may  be,  as  you  suppose,  building  on  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  you  are  building  with  materi- 
als that  will  not  stand  the  test.  Men  are  building  on  the  foundation 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  wood,  hay  and  stubble ;  they  are  building 
wooden  structures,  structures  thatched  with  straw,  or  it  may  be 
structures  of  straw  mixed  with  plaster,  adobe  as  it  were,  and  struct- 
ures of  fanciful  styles ;  they  are  building  structures  with  imperfect 
philosophies,  and  with  morality  not  altogether  unvulgar,  yet  having 
a  certain  element  of  truth  at  the  bottom  of  it ;  but  these  are  not  suf- 
ficient. There  must  be  enough  of  the  divine  element  for  a  man  to 
hold  on  to  in  the  day  of  trial. 

The  time  is  coming  when  everything  which  a  man  builds  on  the 
foundation  of  Jesus  Christ  will  be  brought  to  a  test.  Or,  as  the  fig- 
ure has  it,  a  conflagration  may  come  down  on  the  city,  and  then  the 
temples  which  are  built  of  stones,  solidly,  on  good  foundationSj 
will  endure.  Let  flames  dash  against  them — they  stand.  And  when 
all  the  city  lies  in  smouldering  ashes,  all  that  was  grand  and  beau- 
tiful about  them  before  stands  up  the  more  magnificent  by  contrast. 
Atid  so,  he  that  has  built  a  fair  and  noble  life,  full  of  beneficence, 
full  of  morality,  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  has  a  structure  on  a 
good  foundation,  which,  in  the  midst  of  bankruptcies,  and  persecu- 
tions, and  sickness,  and  death  itself,  is  untouched  and  untarnished ; 
and  it  rises  up  fair,  magnificent,  and  abides  forever. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  who  have  built  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
with  lower  and  more  transient  materials,  when  brought  to  sickness, 
and  under  great  temptations,  and  into  severe  trials,  find  that  which 
they  have  built  unable  to  endure.  And  it  is  swept  away  by  the  whirl- 
wind, or  burned  up  by  fire. 

Our  Master  used  the  same  figure  when  he  said, 

"  Every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not, 
ehall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand." 

They  who  are  familiar  with  the  country  to  which  reference  is  here 


so  UL-B  UlLBINQ.  34 1 

made,  tell  us  that  in  camping  down  there,  if  you  pitch  your  tent  in 
what  seems  to  be  a  fair  valley,  but  what  is  really  a  wide  ravine  sud- 
denly, in  the  night,  the  rains  descending,  the  waters  gather  in  this 
ravine,  and  come  rushing  upon  you  in  floods  before  you  are  awai'e  of 
their  approach,  your  tent  and  all  your  goods  are  swept  away,  and 
all  that  you  can  do  is  to  escape  with  your  life ;  but  that  if  you  en- 
camp on  the  rocks  by  the  side  of  the  ravine,  when  the  rains  come 
they  do  you  no  harm,  when  the  floods  come  you  are  not  disturbed 
by  them,  because  they  are  far  down  below  you. 

They  who  have  good  foundations,  and  build  solidly  on  them,  en- 
dure ;  but  they  who  have  good  foundations  and  build  poorly  upon 
them  are  destroyed. 

Now,  how  much  error  may  a  man  have,  and  be  saved  ?  A  great 
deal  of  speculative  error.  I  believe  that  a  man  may  go  wrong  a 
great  way  in  his  intellectual  views  of  the  Saviour,  I  believe  that  he 
may  err  much  in  reasoning  upon  Christ,  I  believe  that  he  may  fall  into 
innumerable  mistakes  in  fashioning  a  system  of  religioiis  truth,  and 
yet  be  saved.  That  is  to  say,  the  heart-element  may  save  him.  If  one 
is  built  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  love  of  truth,  pure  and 
unfeigned,  in  meekness,  in  sincerity,  in  genuine  disinterestedness, 
in  real  gentleness,  and  he  seeks  by  all  the  force  that  is  in  him  to  do 
good  to  others  around  about  him,  and  not  to  promote  his  own  good  ; 
if  he  is  living  in  his  measure  the  same  life  of  purity  and  beauty  and 
love  and  devotedness  that  Christ  did  in  his  glorious  career  on  earth 
then,  although  his  intellect  has  gone  wrong  about  doctrine,  and  his 
reason  has  gone  wrong,  he  is  built  on  foundations  that  will  survive 
the  day  of  trial.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  may  build  correctly 
at  every  step  so  far  as  the  intellect  is  concerned ;  and  yet,  if  he  has 
not  built  by  the  heart  on  the  foundation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
he  will  not  stand  in  the  day  of  triah 

There  is  great  room  for  intellectual  mistakes  if  the  heart  keeps 
right ;  but  if  the  heart  does  not  keep  right,  all  the  intellectual  ac- 
curacy in  the  world  will  not  save  any  man. 

It  behooves  us,  then,  by  all  means  to  build  on  the  Saviour  as  a 
foundation.  There  is  no  name  given  under  heaven  whereby  men 
can  be  saved  but  his.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  you  will  be  held 
to  a  rigorous  and  exact  view  of  all  that  pertains  to  his  nature  and 
character ;  but  tell  me  of  another  name  that  carries  in  it  so  much 
that  belongs  to  the  necessity  of  human  nature  as  Christ's.  Tell  me 
of  another  name  of  antiquity  whose  unfolding  was  such  that  it  car- 
ried salvation  to  men,  so  that  it  was  safe  to  take  it  and  to  trust  it. 
Tell  me  of  another  name  that  has  had  such  a  vital  transforming  in- 
fluence  upon  men.     Here  is  a  name  that  has  stood  up  in  history,  and 


34  2  SO  VL-B  UILBING. 

has  been  perpetuated  to  our  time,  and  touches  the  soul  to  the  -very 
quick.  There  is  no  part  of  a  regenerated  man's  nature  that  does  not 
feel  the  influence  which  there  is  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  There  is  no 
other  historic  name  that  has  shown  and  is  showing  such  a  power. 
There  is  no  name  given  under  heaven  that  is  to  be  compared  with 
this.  All  other  names  are  dwarfed  and  feeble  and  contemptible  by 
the  side  of  this  tower  of  strength,  this  magnificent  refuge — the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  it  is  on  this  that  I  invite  you  to 
build. 

You  that  are  beginning  life  are  laying  the  foundations  of  your 
character.  You  are  selecting  the  materials  of  which  it  is  to  be 
built.  You  are  in  some  way  or  other  marking  it  out.  You  may  not 
be  aware  of  it.  The  greatest  part  of  your  most  eflfectual  life  is  un- 
conscious. Not  the  things  which  men  mean  to  do  are  the  most 
efiicient.  The  things  which  they  do  not  know  that  they  are  doing 
are  oftentimes  the  most  efficient  in  shaping  their  dispositions  and 
lives.  You  are  marking  out  a  plan  of  lile.  You  never  sit  down  to 
mark  out  one  ;  nevertheless  it  is  traced  for  you.  How  much  of  it  is 
animal,  how  much  of  it  is  selfish,  how  much  of  it  is  full  of  pas- 
sion and  pride,  how  much  of  it  is  sordid  and  avaricious,  how 
much  of  it  is  given  to  beneficence,  how  much  of  it  is  pure  and  spirit- 
ual, I  do  not  know,  and  you  do  not  know.  But  you  are  building 
foundations  either  for  Christ  or  for  the  world.  And  beware  how 
you  build.  Beware  what  foundation  you  are  laying  on  which  to 
build  the  whole  superstructure  of  your  life.  One  builds  on  health  ; 
on  the  vigor  of  his  body  ;  on  his  physical  power  ;  on  the  skill  of  his 
hands.  It  is  on  these  that  he  bases  his  expectation  of  success  in  life. 
Another  builds  on  his  personal  accomplishments ;  another  on  his 
large  equipments ;  another  on  his  taste ;  another  on  his  genius ; 
another  on  graceful  and  witching  ways.  One  builds  on  one  thing 
and  another  on  another.  But  after  all,  the  true  foundation  of  life 
is  dispositional.  And  such  a  foundation  being  laid  in  you,  have 
you  estimated  what  you  have  done  or  are  doing  upon  it  ?  What 
sort  of  a  character  do  you  propose  to  build  on  that  foundation  ? 
Are  you  attempting  to  build  such  an  ideal  character  as  that  which 
is  represented  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Or,  have  you  never 
thought  of  it  ?  Have  you  never  had  a  conception  of  what  you 
would  build,  one  way  or  the  other  ?  Have  you  taken  life  as  it  came, 
and  molded  it  according  to  the  pattern  which  has  been  furnished  by 
the  life  of  Christ  ?  or,  have  you  allowed  yourself  to  be  swept 
down  the  stream  of  time  hap-hazard  ?  Has  there  been  any  conscious 
unfolding  of  yourself?  Have  you  attempted  to  probe  and  find  ex- 
actly the  foundation  on  which  you  are  standing  ?    Do  you  know 


BOUL-BUILBWQ,  343 

what  that  silent  work  is  which  is  going  on  in  you  ?  O  builder !  do 
you  ever  think  of  all  the  structures  that  are  going  up  in  these  great 
cities  ?  There  are  none  that  ai-e  building  so  fast  and  with  so  many 
hands  as  that  structure  of  which  you  are  the  subject. 

We  read  in  fairy  tales  of  how  great  chasms  have  been  bridged 
over  in  a  night  by  benevolent  spii-its,  dwarfs,  ouphes,  and  what  not; 
how  they  hustled  together  vast  rocks,  and  piled  one  upon  another, 
and  built  piers,  and  spanned  them  with  arches,  so  that  the  brave 
knight  could  pass  over  them,  and  reach  the  castle,  and  get  his  lady- 
love. We  read  in  fairy  talcs  of  how  cities  have  been  built  in  a  single 
night;  and  we  imagine  to  ourselves  how,  while  we  sleep,  ten  million 
constructing  fingers  might  carry  up  the  walls,  and  sui-mount  them 
with  golden  domes,  and  how  whole  cities  might  stand  in  the  mornino- 
where  the  night  before  there  was  only  a  wilderness.  But  there  is 
something  more  strange  than  that  would  be, actually  going  on  in  you. 
There  is  not  a  thought  that  is  not  striking  a  blow ;  there  is  not  an 
impulse  that  is  not  doing  mason-work ;  there  is  not  a  passion  thrust 
this  way  or  that  way  that  is  not  a  workman's  thrust.  The  imao-ina- 
tion  in  all  directions  is  building.  You  think  that  you  are  throwino- 
out  the  net  for  game ;  you  think  that  you  are  laying  plans  for  accom- 
plishment; but  back  of  all  the  conscious  work  that  is  goino-  on  in 
you,  back  of  your  visible  attainments,  there  is  another  work  goino-  on. 
There  are  as  many  master-workmen  in  you  as  there  are  separate  fac- 
ulties ;  and  there  are  as  many  blows  being  struck  as  there  are  sepa- 
rate acts  of  emotion  or  of  volition.  And  this  work  is  going  on  per- 
petually. Every  single  day  these  myriad  forces  are  building, 
building,  building.  Here  is  a  great  structure  going  up  point  by 
point,  story  by  story,  although  you  are  not  conscious  of  it.  It  is  a 
building  of  character.  It  is  a  building  that  is  to  stand.  And 
the  word  of  inspiration  warns  you  to  take  heed  how  you  build  it ; 
to  see  to  it  that  you  have  a  foundation  that  shall  endure  ;  to  make 
sure  that  you  are  building  on  it,  not  for  the  hour  in  Avhich  you  live, 
but  for  that  hour  of  revelation,  that  hour  of  testing,  when  that  which 
hath  been  done  shall  be  brought  out,  and  you  shall  be  seen  just  as 
you  are.  Men  are  but  partially  known  in  this  life.  You  do  not 
know  what  a  man  is  as  long  as  he  is  prosperous.  You  do  not  know 
what  he  is  as  long  as  he  is  untempted.  You  do  not  know  what  he  is 
until  he  is  brought  into  emergencies.  But  when  the  day  of  trial 
comes,  a  man's  true  character  is  disclosed.  Thousands  of  men  pre- 
sent a  fair  exterior  as  long  as  it  is  fair  weather ;  but  when  the  storm 
comes  you  know  the  difference  between  a  man  of  capacity  and  a 
man  devoid  of  capacity. 


344  SOUL  BUILDING. 

So  men  are  building  continually.  And  they  know  not  the  day 
nor  the  hour  when  ti'ials  will  test  them.  Take  heed,  therefore,  how 
you  build.  Have  you  that  which  when  men's  praises  cease  will 
satisfy  you  ?  Are  you  so  building  that  you  can  stand  firm  when 
wealth  is  taken  away  ^  Standing  on  the  right  foundation,  are  you 
building  pigmy  dwellings  with  squalid  apartments,  or  are  you  build- 
ing strong  and  high,  after  the  pattern  of  Christ's  character,  with 
commodious  apartments,  and  as  many  of  them  as  there  are  faculties  ? 
Are  all  the  walls  of  this  structure  being  carried  up  harmoniously  ? 
And  are  you  furnishing  these  apartments  amply  and  wisely  ?  Are 
you  filling  your  dwelling  with  the  things  which  are  for  time, 
or  with  the  things  which  are  for  eternity  ?  Are  you  gathering  into 
the  house  of  the  soul  those  companions  that  befit  it  ?  Are  its 
guests  noble  and  royal  ?  Are  you  building  your  soul-house  so  that 
it  is  sound  from  bottom  to  top,  and  from  top  to  bottom  ?  Are  you 
building  it  so  that  it  shall  endure  in  sickness,  in  adversity,  yea,  in 
death  itself  ?  Are  you  building  it  so  that  it  shall  stand  when  you 
pass  through  the  flood  and  through  the  fire  ? 

You  think  that  one  hour  buries  another  ;  but  it  is  not  so.  You 
think  that  you  have  parted  forever  from  the  things  which  have 
passed  by  you.  No,  you  have  not.  There  is  much  in  your  life  that 
you  think  has  gone  which  you  never  shall  part  from.  It  has  stepped 
behind  you  ;  and  there  it  waits.  That  which  you  have  done  is 
with  you  to-day  ;  and  that  which  you  are  doing  will  be  with  you 
to-morrow.  When  the  mason  carries  up  the  wall,  the  course  of 
brick  which  he  laid  yesterday  is  the  foundation  on  which  he  is  lay- 
ing another  course  to-day.  And  all  that  you  do  to-day  on  the  struct- 
ure which  you  are  building  will  remain  as  a  basis  for  that  which 
you  do  to-morrow.  The  work  proceeds  without  intermission  ;  and 
all  that  has  been  done  is  the  under-structure  for  that  which  is  to  be 
done. 

Young  man  and  maiden,  take  heed  how  you  build.  That 
which  you  are  doing,  the  work  which  you  are  performing,  you  do 
not  leave  behind  you  because  you  forget  it.  It  passes  away  from 
you  a])parently,  but  it  does  not  pass  away  from  you  in  reality. 
Every  stroke,  every  single  element,  abides.  And  there  is  nothing 
that  grows  so  fast  as  character.  There  is  nothing  that  is  so  endur- 
ing as  character.  There  is  nothing  that  men  think  so  little  of  as  char- 
acter, although  there  is  nothing  that  so  belongs  to  their  immortality, 
and  that  is  so  incomparable  in  importance,  as  character. 

Now,  if  you  are  building  upon  Christ,  if  you  are  placing  upon 
the  broad  foundation  of  Christ's  character  the  right  superstructure. 


SOUL-BUILDING.  345 

if  you  are  in  vital  and  sympathetic  union  with  Christ,  as  your  Head, 
your  Brother,  your  Savio\xr,  your  God,  and  your  final  Judge,  if 
you  are  day  by  day  laying  every  thought,  every  purpose,  every 
emotion,  every  element  of  life,  upon  Jesus  Christ,  then,  no  matter 
what  the  contingencies  may  be,  no  matter  what  the  events  of  the 
future  may  be,  you  are  safe,  and  that  which  you  have  built  will  en- 
dure. 

Go  on,  oh  man,  yonder  !  Add  house  to  house  :  you  are  no  bigger 
for  your  houses.  Go  on,  buy  up  corner  lots,  and  lot  after  lot :  you 
are  no  bigger  for  having  so  many  lots  in  your  name.  Go  on;  get 
stocks  and  bonds  and  mortgages,  buy  roads,  buy  mountains  of 
gold  and  mines  of  iron,  fill  the  whole  continent  with  the  memorials 
of  your  property :  you  are  but  a  pigmy,  after  all.  Your  money 
swells,  and  you  shrink.  You  are  working  and  working ;  but  ah  ! 
the  you,  the  personnel^  the  man — what  is  he?  Not  what  his  prop- 
erty is,  and  not  what  his  reputation  is,  but  just  what  his  character 
is.  And  his  character  is  just  what  the  moral  elements  in  him  make 
it.  His  physical  elements  are  huge  as  the  trunk  of  a  tree :  but  hia 
moral  elements  are  like  one  lingering  green  leaf  or  two  on  an  old 
dying  tree  which  you  see  in  the  moss-gi'own  orchard.  By  and  by 
he  will  die  as  to  the  flesh :  and  then  whose  will  be  these  houses . 
then  whose  will  be  these  mortgages  and  bonds  and  lots  ?  They  are 
no  part  of  him.  That  which  makes  him  a  figure  in  history  and  a 
power  in  the  street,  is  simply  what  he  has,  and  not  what  he  is.  It 
is  that  which  is  to  him  what  a  swallow's  nest  under  the  eaves  is  to 
a  barn.  +  It  is  that  which  is  merely  in  juxtaposition  to  him.  And  so, 
no  matter  how  much  property  he  buys,  when  that  is  gone,  what  is 
left  is  just  so  much  as  there  is  of  manhood  in  him.  He  was  good 
at  figures,  he  ciphered  well ;  but  how  was  he  for  benevolence,  for 
spirituality,  for  faith,  for  reverence,  for  true  manliness,  for  that 
which  builds  up  the  soul  ?  He  was  a  dwarf  in  these  things.  He 
was  a  giant  only  in  his  legs.  He  was  a  pigmy  in  his  head.  The  man 
in  him  was  minimum,  and  the  animal  was  maximum. 

When  a  prosperous  man  comes  to  be  tried  at  death,  how  much 
of  his  life  is  swept  away  !  That  which  he  has  thought  of  night  and 
day,  that  which  he  has  labored  for  all  his  life  long,  that  which  has 
filled  him  with  envies  and  jealousies  and  angers  and  strifes,  that 
which  he  has  given  his  soul  to  buy,  stops  in  the  sick  room  or  at  the 
grave.  Only  his  soul  goes  fortli  to  meet  its  Judge.  Envy  him  not. 
Imitate  him  not. 

Oh  builders  of  the  soul !  remember  that  the  soul's  best  friend  is 
Jesus  Christ.  Seek  him.  Drink  in  his  spirit.  Live  by  faith  of  him, 
the  beneficent,  and  the  only  truly  divine  One  that  we  can  comprehend 


346  SOUL-BUILDING. 

with  our  human  understandings — God  manifest  in  the  flesh — the  very 
conception  and  great  ideal  of  all  that  is  pure  and  transcendent,  and 
noble  and  divine.  Make  him  your  Friend,  Build  upon  him  with 
holy  thoughts  and  holy  purposes.  And  then  wait  patiently  to  the 
end.  And  the  hour  of  death  shall  harm  nothing,  shall  take  nothing 
from  you,  that  is  worth  keeping,  but  shall  translate  you  into  that 
land  where  no  harm  shall  come,  and  where  that  which  was  in  bud 
shall  break  forth  into  blossom,  and  where  that  which  was  in  bloom 
shall  become  fruit  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God. 

I  part  with  you  for  some  months;  and  my  last  "word  is,  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  your  faith ;  Jesus  Christ, 
God  revealed  to  forgive  and  to  save  ;  Jesus  Christ,  your  Lover  and 
your  Friend;  Jesus  Christ,  your  Guide  and  your  Judge;  Jesus 
Christ,  your  eternal  Meward. 


L  SOUL-BUILDING,  347 

PRAYER    BEFORE  THE  SERMOK 

Our  heavenly  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  the  great  mercies  with  which  thou 
hast  blest  us  all  the  days  of  our  liyes.  We  thank  thee  that  we  have  not  been 
left  to  seek  our  good  in  the  flesh,  nor  only  in  this  world.  We  thank  thee  that 
we  have  been  enlightened  by  the  truth  from  above,  and  have  been  taught  of 
that  higher  and  better  life,  and  of  that  nobler  character,  by  which  we  shall 
be  set  free  from  the  entanglements  of  the  flesh,  and  which  shall  make  us  aa 
the  spirits  of  God,  although  we  have  not  seen  them.  We  rejoice  that  thou 
hast  taught  us  of  thyself ;  that  we  have  felt  thy  power;  that  we  have  had 
communion  with  thee ;  that  we  know  that  thou  art,  and  that  thou  art  a 
hearer  of  prayer.  We  thank  thee  for  the  manifestations  which  thou  hast 
made  to  us,  and  that  thou  hast  spoken  to  the  soul,  so  that  we  have  recognized 
our  Father;  so  that  our  hearts  have  sprung  forth  to  greet  thee;  so  that  we 
know  that  we  are  children  of  God. 

And  now,  O  Lord,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  not  be  discouraged 
with  us,  though  thy  work  is  slow,  and  lingers  long  unaccomplished.  Thou  art 
the  Author  of  our  faith,  and  thou  must  be  the  Finisher  thereof.  By  the  grace 
of  God  only  can  we  attain  to  any  goodness.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that 
thou  wilt  continue,  though  we  be  backward,  and,  though  we  be  fractious  and 
disobedient,  to  inspire  us  with  noble  thoughts,  and  to  work  in  us  to  will  and 
to  do  of  thy  good  pleasure. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  the  truth  may  not  be 
as  a  dead  letter  in  the  midst  of  this  congregation.  May  it,  rather,  be  as  a  liv- 
ing force  among  them.  We  pray  for  thy  people,  that  they  may  not  have  a 
name  only  that  lives.  May  they  not  be  dead  as  Christians.  May  their  lives 
flame  forth  so  that  their  light  shall  shine  before  men.  And  may  God  be  glori- 
fied in  the  fruit  which  they  bring  forth. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  all  the  young  in  our  midst 
may  take  heed  wisely  in  the  beginning  of  their  days ;  and  that  they  may  go 
on  from  strength  to  strength  building  on  integrity  and  piety. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  teach  men  how  to  do  good  to  others, 
and  not  to  themselves  alone.  May  those  that  are  instructed  of  God  repeat  in 
love  to  others  the  wisdom  which  is  imparted  to  them. 

And  bless  those  that  teach.  Bless  those  that  go  forth  to  minister  to  the 
poor  and  the  needy.  Bless  those  everywhere  who  are  bearing  thy  Word 
among  their  fellows,  that  it  may  be  as  salt  to  them. 

We  pray  for  the  reformation  of  morals  among  our  people.  We  pray  that 
thou  wilt  hold  back  the  tides  of  intemperance  in  om-  midst.  We  pray  that 
vice  and  corruption  may  cease  throughout  the  community,  and  that  men 
may  fear  God  and  love  one  another.  We  pray  that  industry  may  prevail, 
and  that  everywhere  men  may  be  patient  with  others  and  severe  with 
themselves. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  spread  abroad  the  tidings  of  salvation 
through  Jesus  Christ  into  the  dark  places  of  this  land,  and  over  the  whole 
earth.  Make  haste  to  send  the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  every  part  of  the  globe. 
Lord  Jesus,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  have  compassion  upon  the 
nations  of  the  world.  May  those  that  are  suffering  the  afflictions  of  war  be 
speedily  healed.  May  those  that  are  in  the  midst  of  revolution,  and  are 
turned  up  thereby,  and  are  in  confusion,  be  as  the  furrow  which  the  plow 
makes  before  the  seed  is  cast  in  from  which  springs  the  rich  harvest.  And 
we  beseech  of  thee  that  nations  may  learn  war  no  more;  and  that  they  may 
need  it  no  more  as  a  chastisement  for  their  sins.  May  all  men  live  together 
in  peace,  and  rejoice  together  in  the  knowledge  of  the  salvation  which  is  in 
Jesus  Christ. 


348  SOUL-BUILDING. 

And  now,  Lord,  we  commit  ourselves  to  thy  fatherly  care,  praying  that 
thou  wilt  do  for  us,  not  what  we  ask,  nor  according  to  the  measure  of  our 
wisdom,  but  according  to  the  amplitude  of  thy  goodness,  and  according  to 
the  measure  of  thy  wisdom.  Give,  or  withhold.  Lay  upon  us,  or  take  away 
from  us.  Do  as  seemeth  best  in  thy  sight.  But  may  we  evermore  bear  about 
with  us  the  consciousness  that  it  is  the  Lord  who  is  dealing  with  us.  And 
grant  that  we  may  feel  that  all  things  shall  work  together,  under  thine  admin- 
istration, for  the  best. 

And  when  we  shall  have  passed  through  our  life  here ;  when  we  shall  have 
finished  the  hours,  not  many  of  which  can  remain,  grant  that  then  we  may 
be  borne  above  death,  through  it,  and  victorious  over  it,  into  the  land  of  the 
blessed.  And  there,  we  will  praise  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  imperfectly  spoken. 
Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  by  thy  Spirit  it  may  be  profitable  to  those  who 
have  heard  it.  We  pray  for  the  young,  that  they  may  look  up  to  thee.  Be 
thou  their  God  as  thou  hast  been  their  fathers'  God.  Teach  them,  we  pray  thee, 
to  give  their  hearts  to  thee  early.  May  they  have  no  ignoble  conception  of  a 
religious  life.  May  they  understand  the  largeness  of  spirit  and  the  liberty  of 
soul  that  come  only  by  Jesus  Christ.  May  they  take  him  for  their  pattern. 
May  they  build  upon  him.  Grant  that  they  may  build  worthily,  and  of  such 
materials  as  shall  stand  the  trials  and  tribulations  of  this  life,  and  the  tests  of 
death,  and  the  searching  tests  of  the  life  that  is  to  come.  Let  light,  and  lh3 
glory  of  God,  shine  upon  every  one. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  help  all  those  that  would  come  back  from  dark- 
ness and  from  wandering;  all  those  that  are  maimed  by  vices  and  sins;  and 
all  those  that  look  wistfully  at  the  point  at  which  they  parted  from  purity, 
and  would  begin  again.  Lord  Jesus,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  renew  them. 
Comfort  and  encourage  them.  Draw  them  back  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop 
of  their  souls.    Go  out  to  the  lost;  find  them ;  and  bring  them  back  to  thyself. 

Keep  this  people.  Keep  all  their  households.  Grant  that  death  may  not 
come  near  them ;  and  if  that  which  men  call  death  draws  near  to  any  one  of 
them,  may  it  prove  to  be  life— life  eternal.  And  prepare  all  in  the  things 
which  are  lawful. 

Grant  that  we  may  all  of  us  still  be  united  in  the  one  common  yearning 
and  desire  for  godliness  and  for  heaven.  And  so,  by  and  by,  may  we  all 
clasp  inseparable  hands  in  that  blessed  land  where  parting  shall  be  known 
no  more,  and  where  all  imperfections  shall  be  dropped,  and  where  we  shall 
see  each  other  just  as  we  are,  and  rejoice  in  that  which  we  shall  see  of  love 
and  purity  and  beauty. 

And  to  thy  name',  O  Father,  to,  thy  name  blessed  Saviour,  to  thy  name 
sanctifying,  comfortmg  Spuit,  we  will  give  the  praise  of  our  salvation  forever 
and  ever.    Amen. 


xvin. 
Eeligious  Fervor. 


Smile  upon  us,  our  Father.  Grant  unto  us  the  sensible  presence  of  thy 
Spirit,  that  we  may  find  all  of  our  better  nature  aroused  out  of  sorrow,  and 
doubt,  and  care,  and  fear,  and  suffering,  and  that  there  may  go  forth  joy 
and  peace  in  believing.  We  pray  that  the  night  may  depart  with  all  its 
images  of  terror  and  watchfulness,  and  that  the  morning  may  come,  and 
that  everything  in  us  may  shine,  glittering  in  the  light  of  the  rising  sun. 
Rejoice  us  in  thy  presence ;  and  may  we  hear  thee  calling  us  by  those  names 
of  love  and  confidence  which  shall  assure  our  souls  that  we  are  sons  of  God. 
We  pray  for  thy  blessing  upon  the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  May  we  re- 
joice before  each  other  as  well  as  before  God.  May  it  be  a  day  of  remem- 
brance in  our  midst.  Bless  our  songs  of  praise,  our  prayers,  our  meditations, 
our  search  after  truth,  bless  everything  which  we  attempt  to  do,  to  thine 
honor,  and  to  our  profit;  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

18. 


V 


EELIGIOUS  FEEVOE. 


•'Not  slothful  in  business  [1.  e.  not  slothful  in  zeal,  in  earnestness,  refer- 
ring not  so  much  to  secular  "business"];  fervent  in  Spirit;  serving  tlie 
Lord."— Rom.  XII.,  IL 


The  aim  of  the  New  Testament  is  to  inspire  and  to  create  a  man- 
hood of  a  nobler  sort  than  that  which  falls  out  in  the  way  of  na- 
ture— nobler  than  any  known  before,  in  this  respect :  that  it  em- 
braces the  preparation  for  two  worlds ;  that  it  develops  spiritual 
elements  unknown  to  the  heroism  of  the  past.  It  is  a  manhood 
which,  while  it  transcends  all  others,  is  designed  to  be  accessible  to 
all.  It  is  not  a  manhood  which  requires  genius,  but  is  one  to  which 
the  poor,  the  ignorant,  all,  may  alike  attain — although  in  various 
degrees. 

In  this  manhood,  the  soul  is  based  upon  God.  There  is  to  be 
fullness  of  parts,  there  is  to  be  completeness,  there  is  to  be  the  right 
foundation,  the  right  superstructure,  the  right  materials  ;  and  they 
are  to  be  of  the  right  quality  ;  and  they  are  to  be  in  a  condition  of 
the  highest  activity.  To  this  point  flow  together  all  the  testimonies 
of  Scripture.  Everywhere*  power,  fervency — in  other  words,  fullness 
or  efliciency  of  life — is  to  be  made  a  part  of  the  Christian  character, 
an  aim  for  the  attainment  of  which  men  are  to  strive.' 

It  is  not  enough  that  men  should  be  free  from  every  evil ;  that 
they  should  not  sin:  they  should  clothe  themselves  with  posi- 
tive goodness.  It  is  not  enough  that  men  should  avoid  excess. 
They  must  seek  to  attain  high  states,  and  to  attain  them  in  blessed 
equilibrium.  Languid  goodness  is  not  enough.  We  must  be  good ; 
but  our  goodness  must  be  a  goodness  that  sparkles — that  is  full  of 
both  light  and  heat. 

■  The  term  ferve?it,  in  the  original,  means  huryiing^  and  has 
its  inner  meaning  as  a  derivative  from  the  Latin  ;  but  in  its  Greek 
original  it  signifies  rather  the  act  of  heat  in  boiling.  Substantially 
it  there  means  the  same  thing  that  we  mean  by  it,  when  we  speak 
of  that  which  has  been  raised  to  such  a  degree  of  light  and  heat 

BuTfDAY  MoRNTNO,  July  2,  1871     Lesson  :   Eom.  XII.    Hyuns  (Plymouth   Col- 
lection) :  No8.  40,  247. 


352  BELIGIO  US  FEB  VOB. 

that  it  radiates  l)otli  of  them — sends  them  out  from  itself.  And  this 
idea  runs  through  the  Scrij^ture.  We  are  children  of  light.  We  are 
cleansed  hy  light.  When  the  forerunner  of  the  Saviour  came,  it  was 
declared,  "  He  shall  baptise  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire." 
And  the  Saviour  himself  says,  "  1  am  come  to  send  fire  on  the  earth ; 
and  what  will  I,  if  it  be  already  kindled  ?"  And  men,  in  conse- 
quence, are  called  to  be  fervent — that  is,  like  fire — that  is,  really 
burning,  in  an  active  state  of  combustion.  As  all  fire  that  is  burn- 
ing sends  out  light,  so  they  are  to  let  their  light  shine.  They  are 
to  be  children  of  light. 

Heat  and  light  are  not  simply  physical  qualities.  They  have 
been  so  transformed  in  our  imagination  that  now  they  belong  to 
moral  and  intellectual  qualities.  Therefore,  not  simply  are  we  to  be 
avoiders  of  that  which  is  wrong,  not  simply  are  we  to  be  practicers 
of  that  which  is  right,  but  our  life  is  to  be  so  cast,  there  is  to  be 
such  an  elevation  and  intensity  in  our  experience,  that  we  shall  be 
fervid;  that  we  shall  glow  with  light  and  glow  with  heat.  That  is 
unquestionably  the  Scriptural  idea  of  Christian  character.  Not 
perfect,  not  prophetic  character ;  not  that  of  men  set  apart  for 
special  ofiices  and  great  occasions;  but  a  character  which  is  at- 
tainable by  all — that  is  the  inherent  idea  of  life.  And  one  of  the 
evidences  of  the  divinity  of  the  sacred  writings  is,  that  such  concep- 
tions as  these,  after  long  experience  and  observation  and  insight, 
have  come  to  be  a  part  of  the  regimen  of  Christian  life. 

Our  mental  faculties  may  exist  in  a  state  of  passivity ;  or,  just  a 
Uttle  above  that,  in  a  state  of  receptivity.  They  may  be  in  a  con- 
dition of  rest,  or  partial  rest.  And  then  they  are  sheathed,  as  it 
were.  But  they  may  be  ai-oused  by  the  presentation  of  objects  or 
motives  of  various  kinds  to  what  is  called  a  condition  of  attention — 
a  condition  in  which  they  stand  attent,  ready  to  act  or  to  be 
acted  upon.  Higher  than  that,  come  what  may  be  called  the  early 
stages  of  excitement^  in  which  our  faculties  begin  to  work,  and  work 
outwardly ;  in  which  they  begin  to  glow.  Then,  higher  than  this, 
is  a  condition  in  which  our  faculties  reach  an  intense  action ;  and 
then  they  begin  to  be  luminous.  They  produce  a  sensation  of  light, 
and  certainly  a  sensation  of  heat.  They  are  then  in  their  highest 
condition.  Every  man  knows  this  who  has  been  accustomed  to  j^er- 
form  the  duties  of  life  in  any  routine  order.  When  he  first  ad- 
dresses himself  to  his  work,  how  slow,  how  hard,  how  heavy  it  is. 
As  he  goes  on,  he  begins  to  arouse,  and  things  become  more  easy, 
more  facile,  more  natural  to  him.  And,  as  his  enthusiasm  grows,  the 
clouds  seem  to  clear  away  from  about  his  head,  and  his  eyes  see 
better,  clearer,  sharper,  more  distinctly.     His  hands  are  more  dex- 


BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB,  353 

terous  when  he  is  in  a  fit  of  enthusiasm.  This  is  called  a  state  of  in- 
spiration. In  other  words,  when  a  man  passes  on  to  the  higher 
forms  of  excitement  to  which  our  faculties  are  subject,  then  he  is 
conscious  that  he  is  able  to  do  more  in  an  hour  than  at  other  times 
he  is  able  to  do  in  days  or  in  weeks,  and  to  do  it  better.  The  lower 
down  excitement  is,  the  more  clumsy  are  the  results  of  mental  activ- 
ity ;  but  the  higher  up  it  is,  the  finer  is  the  quality  of  the  things 
accomplished,  the  more  complex  they  are,  and  they  are  more  cer- 
tain as  well  as  briefer. 

We  can  see  why,  in  this  higher  form  of  mental  activity,  light  and 
fire  are  chosen  as  symbols.  Are  there  not  persons  in  my  presence 
who  have  risen  to  an  excitement  in  which  they  seemed  to  see 
sparks,  as  it  were,  emitted  from  their  own  eyes  ?  High  excitement 
produces  a  sense  of  objective  light,  though  it  is  subjective.  We 
ourselves  say  of  ourselves  that  we  kindle^  that  we  glow,  that  we 
have  a  conscience  and  experience  of  being  w^armed.  Our  hearts 
burn  within  us.  And  this  is  not  simply  borrowed  language.  It 
is  a  language  which  is  suggested  by  our  actual  sensation  of  these 
higher  moods  of  activity.  No  man  really  lives  except  when  he  is  in 
these  higher  moods ;  that  is,  he  does  not  compass  the  real  manhood 
that  is  in  him,  he  is  not  conscious  of  that  which  is  his  personal  iden- 
tity, until  he  rises  from  the  lower  forms  of  passivity,  or  of  excited 
attention,  or  of  working  excitement,  into  the  real  higher  forms  of 
experience — I  might  almost  say  inspirational  moods. 

This  state  of  high  excitement  or  fervor  in  a  faculty  is  full  of 
strength.  We  work  when  we  are  indolent  with  the  thumb  and  fin- 
ger ;  but  when  a  man  is  thoroughly  aroused  it  is  the  whole  hand, 
and  all  the  power  of  the  arm  behind  it,  and  all  the  power  of  the 
body  behind  that,  that  works.  A  man's  strength  is  doubled  and 
quadrupled  by  simply  bringing  all  the  energies  of  the  body  to  bear 
upon  his  work.  And  as  it  is  in  the  hand,  so  it  is  in  the  mind.  There 
we  work  slowly  and  imperfectly  when  we  work  with  single  facul- 
ties ;  but  when  all  the  faculties  that  are  neighbors  to  each  other  co- 
operate, we  work  with  more  intensity  and  efficiency.  It  is  only 
when  a  m?,n  brings  directly  or  indirectly  all  the  forces  of  his  mind 
to  his  work  that  he  has  great  strength  and  power.  The  higher, 
fervent  forms  of  experience  tend  to  wake  up  all  the  faculties.  One 
or  more  of  the  faculties  of  the  mind  cannot  become  active  without 
rousing  up  all  the  others.  If  some  of  them  work  in  earnest,  all  the 
others  have  got  to  get  up  and  work  too. 

T^hese  higher  forms,  these  intensities  of  mental  life,  are  favor- 
able to  the  forming  of  right  conclusions.      Men's  judgments  are 


354  BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB. 

quicker  and  more  accurate  when  their  mind  is  active  in  its  upper 
faculties.  Many  a  man  fii.ds  that  the  first  judgments  that  he  forms 
after  waking  in  the  morning,  are  his  best  judgments.  The  first  ju<-g- 
ment  is  not  always  the  best  one  if  it  be  inspired  by  the  basilar 
faculties ;  but  if  our  moral  sentiments  are  awake  and  active,  our  first, 
judgments  are  the  best.  It  is  not  always  so  when  you  go  lower 
down.  If  a  man's  pride,  or  selfishness,  or  temper,  or  lust  inspire 
bim,  his  first  judgments  may  be  the  best  for  the  purposes  of  these 
lower  passions,  but  not  for  any  larger  scope  of  reason  or  right. 
Then  what  are  called  sober  second  thoughts  may  be  better.  But 
when  the  higher  moral  faculties  are  aroused  and  active,  a  man's  first 
judgments  are  surely  the  best.  They  are  the  most  generous,  the 
most  pure,  the  most  magnanimous  ;  and  the  effect  on  them  of  sober 
second  thoughts  is  to  whittle  them  down,  and  fit  them  to  our  sordid 
circumstances  in  life,  because  they  are  too  kind  and  too  benevolent 
for  such  circumstances.  Therefore,  where  the  moral  elements  are 
engaged,  take  the  first  judgments  ;  but  where  it  is  the  passional  ele- 
ments, take  the  second  ones.  In  the  latter  case  they  always  need  to 
be  corrected. 

There  are  various  kinds  of  experiences  of  truth — physical,  intel- 
lectual, emotional,  sentimental,  esthetic,  and  moral,  and  there  are 
experiences  of  truth  which  are  impossible  to  any  lowei  stage  of  ex- 
citement. They  are  never  known,  and  never  can  be  known,  except 
by  a  mind  that  is  aroused  to  its  intensest  action.  When  a  man's 
mind  is  so  aroused,  it  touches  them.  Then  they  are  disclosed  to  it. 
There  are  experiences  in  a  fine  nature  which  occupy  but  a  few  mo- 
ments, but  which  stand  out  in  the  memory  as  if  they  had  extended 
through  the  best  part  of  a  whole  life.  As  there  are  some  plants 
that  require  the  whole  summer  to  blossom  in,  and  some  that  blos- 
som in  one  or  two  weeks'  time  ;  so  there  are  some  experiences  that 
require  a  great  while  in  which  to  blossom,  and  there  are  single  hours 
and  single  moments  that  are  worth  more  to  us  than  all  the  rest  of 
our  life  put  together. 

Besides,  it  is  only  in  these  high  conditions  of  the  mind  that  the 
noblest  flowers  break  forth  into  bloom,  and  that  the  richest  fruits 
grow.  This  is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  higher  forms  of  spirit- 
ual truth.  What  are  called  moral  intuitio7is  cannot  come  except  in 
these  most  rapturous  moods, 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  for  they  shall  see  God." 

This  is  true  in  two  ways.  It  is  true  that  we  cannot  see  any 
more  of  God  than  we  carry  a  specimen  of,  or  have  experienced,  in 
ourselves.  It  is  also  true  that  the  purity  of  heart  spoken  of  here  is 
that  which  results  from  the  most  exalted  condition  of  mind  under 


EELIGIO  US  FEB  VOE.  355 

excitement,  and  that  when  we  are  in  that  condition  wt  do  see  what 
we  could  not  see  at  other  times.  Then  we  have  an  intuition  of  the 
divine  presence  and  of  the  royalty  of  the  nature  of  God.  ^ 

By  this  enthusiasm,  in  an  eminent  degree,  men  propagate  them- 
selves upon  others  in  matters  of  taste,  of  affection,  of  religion,  and 
of  things  in  general. 

Iron  cannot  be  welded  at  a  low  temperature.  There  must  be 
heat,  and  then  you  can  weld  iron  to  iron.  And  so  you  cannot 
weld  natures  to  each  other  when  they  are  at  a  low  temperature. 
Mind  cannot  take  hold  of  mind,  nor  faculty  hold  of  faculty,  when 
they  are  not  in  a  glow  ;  but  when  they  are,  they  can.  When  your 
mind  is  aroused  with  enthusiasm,  then  it  is  influential  upon  my 
mind.  And  it  is  scarcely  any  more  a  matter  of  my  will  whether  I 
shall  feel  or  not.  I  may  not  follow  your  purposes  ;  but  I  cannot 
but  sympathize.  If  your  feelings  are  strong,  I  cannot  help  sym- 
pathizing with  you,  though  I  cannot  go  to  the  ends  that  you  do. 
There  is  no  other  time  when  men  have  such  power  over  their  fellow- 
men  as  when  they  are  in  these  higher  moods.  They  are  the  moods 
in  which  one  mind  dominates  another.  Love  and  faith  at  white 
heat  are  irresistible.  One  reason  why  the  apostles  had  such  power 
wherever  they  went, was  that,  having  no  fastidious  taste  or  thought 
about  the  form  or  proportion  of  anything,  they  had  this  lunging 
power,  and  they  were  hot  all  over,  all  the  time  ;  and  everywhere 
men  caught  fire  at  their  sacred  touch. 

We  see  this  exemplified  in  society.  Hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  men,  who  are  rich  in  learning,  ponderous  in  mental  equipment, 
ample  in  philosophical  power,  admirable  in  proportion,  who  are  at  a 
low  degree  of  temperature,  and  who  labor  all  their  life,  achieve  but 
little.  And  you  shall  see  right  by  the  side  of  them  men  who  have 
no  comparison  with  them  in  native  power — certainly  not  in  culture 
— but  who  have  simplicity,  straightforwardness,  and  above  all  in- 
tensity/, and  who  are  eminent  for  their  success  in  accomplishing  re- 
sults. It  comes  from  the  fervidness  of  their  spirit.  They  know  in 
whom  they  have  believed,  and  in  what  they  have  believed  ;  and 
with  one  or  two  simple  truths,  and  with  light  and  fire  in  the  soul, 
they  have  gone  forward  and  achieved  more,  a  hundred  times,  than 
men  who  were  better  equipped. 

Out  of  this  fact,  which  is  patent  to  any  one  who  is  observant, 
much  false  reasoning  has  grown.  Men  say,  "What  is  the  use  of 
learning  ?  There  is  a  man  who  is  as  learned  as  an  encyclopedia, 
but  who  has  spent  all  his  life  for  nothing."  It  was  not  his  learning 
that  prevented  his  doing  anything,  but  the  fact  that  his  learning 
was  not  hot.    Again  they  say,  "  What  is  the  use  of  learning  ?    Here 


D 


356  BJELIGIOUS  FEEVOB, 

is  a  poor,  ignorant  person — so  ignorant  that  he  cannot  speak  his 
mother-tongue  correctly ;  and  he  has  made  his  life  count  at  every 
turn."  It  was  not  his  ignorance  that  led  to  his  success.  He  took 
his  nature,  and  put  it  in  God's  furnace,  and  raised  it  to  a  white  heat ; 
and  it  was  the  heat  that  did  the  work,  not  his  ignorance. 

Another  man  has  both  amplitude  of  learning  and  refinement  oi 
culture,  and  his  whole  mind  is  intensely  active,  and  with  this  equip- 
ment he  goes  forward,  and  is  mighty  for  achievement.  He  is  a 
Luther.  He  is  peculiarly  and  eminently  a  man.  He  stands,  as 
Paul  stood  and  stands,  powerful  in  his  influence  over  men.  White 
heat  in  the  brain  gives  powei*.  And  if  a  man  wants  to  make  truth 
efficacious,  let  him  be  fervid.  Enthusiasts  always  get  disciples. 
Even  if  they  be  scatter-brained,  they  win  their  way.  So  great  is 
the  infectious  power  of  feeling  that  if  it  is  earnest  and  continuous, 
it  glows  and  shines  until  all  about  it  are  permeated  by  it. 

Moreover,  these  high  states  of  mind  throw  off  a  great  deal 
which  otherwise  oppresses  men.  Most  of  us  work  with  what  mil- 
lers call  "  back-water  on  the  wheel"  ;  as  when  the  wheel  is  so  sub- 
merged that  the  motive  power  has  to  overcome  the  resistance  of  that 
which  hinders  its  movement.  We  do  not  use  half  of  ourselves,  be- 
cause we  are  so  sodden  with  care  all  the  time.  A  great  deal  of  our 
electricity  is  used  in  combating  fear.  We  are  full  of  morbid  or 
malign  passions  which  interrupt  our  progress.  There  is  that  which 
is  worse  than  back-water  on  the  wheel.  It  is  turbid  water,  it  is 
mud,  often,  on  the  wheel.  And  we  have  to  use  half  the  force  of 
our  life  in  combating  hindrances,  so  that  only  half  of  it  remains 
with  which  to  do  the  active  work. 

Now,  these  higher  moods  paralyze  the  basilar  faculties,  or  rather 
make  them  auxiliary  to  the  higher  faculties.  And  when  men  are 
in  these  exalted  states,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  have  care,  for 
the  same  reason  that  it  is  impossible  for  an  eagle  to  have  dust  on 
his  wings  when  he  is  half  way  up  to  the  sun.  Dust  does  not  go  so 
high.  If  you  be  low,  if  you  move  along  on  a  level,  you  become 
spattered  with  mud ;  but  if  you  rise  high  in  the  air,  the  mud  can- 
not touch  you.  Men  that  live  in  higher  moods  have  no  such  beset- 
ments  as  men  who  live  in  their  lower  moods.  If  men  are  only  fer- 
vent, their  very  fervency  carries  them  into  an  atmosphere  where 
there  are  few  hindrances  to  an  ordinary  Christian  life.  Temptation 
shoots  with  a  strong  bow,  but  with  a  short  arrow ;  and  if  you  fly 
on  a  level  the  archer  will  hit  you  every  time,  while  if  you  fly  high 
he  cannot  hit  you.  Fervency  has  this  to  commend  it :  that  while 
it  gives  to  a  man  his  whole  self  and  power,  it  also  carries  him  where 
hindrances  and  backsets  are  fewer,  if  they  are  not  altogether  left 


BELIGIO  US  FEB  VOB.  357 

l)eliind.  A  state  of  exaltation,  therefore,  is  a  state  of  grace.  I 
tell  you  that  those  denominations  and  churches  and  ministers 
who  believe  m  revivals,  in  intensity  in  religion,  go  to  the  root  of 
the  matter.  There  are  some  objectionable  things  in  religious  ex- 
citement ;  but  there  is  also  much  that  is  good.  And  if  men  say 
that  passion  is  not  religion,  ray  reply  is  that  there  is  no  religion 
without  passion.  For,  though  passion  is  not  religion,  religion  in  its 
nature  is  intensive.  But  the  higher  feelings  are  not  necessarily 
boisterous.  The  most  intense  feelings  are  often  the  stillest.  It  is 
when  the  fire  is  first  kindled  that  there  is  the  most  smoke  and  crack- 
ling, while  the  bark  and  softer  external  parts  are  being  consumed. 
As  the  fire  comes  nearer  and  nearer  to  flame,  the  less  there  is  of 
smoke.  And  by  and  by  the  coal  surpasses  the  flame.  And  the  heat 
is  greatest  when  there  is  the  least  sparkling  and  snapping  and 
roaring. 

If  you  must  vocalize,  vocalize  ;  but  there  is  not  a  man  that 
shouts  "Hallelujah"  who  feels  more  than  the  man  that  cannot  shout 
because  he  feels  so  much.  Some  manifest  what  they  feel,  and  some 
hide  what  they  feel,  I  do  not  say  which  way  it  should  go.  It  may 
be  that  a  double  action  is  the  right  thing.  It  may  be  that  some 
feelings  should  be  exhibited,  and  that  some  should  be  concealed. 
But  this  I  say  :  that  though  intense  feeling  is  not  religion,  yet  true 
religion  tends  to  excite  feelinff.  It  does  not  exhibit  itself  in  a  bois- 
terous  way,  always.  It  does  not  necessarily  throw  out  the  limbs 
and  give  itself  bodily  expression-^though  I  cannot  deny  that 
I  have  much  sympathy  for  that,  in  the  strong  and  impulsive  natures 
And  if  you  are  to  choose  between  the  propriety  of  a  dull,  smolder- 
ing, unburning  experience,  and  the  sparkle,  the  flame,  and  the  smoke, 
even,  of  a  glowing  one,  give  me  the  one  that  has  life  in  it.  Give 
me  the  snapping  and  the  sparks,  rather  than  the  ashes  that  never 
set  anything  on  fire,  nor  do  anything  else.  Why,  if  not  doing  any 
harm  is  the  only  thing  to  be  thought  of,  as  many  persons  seem  to 
think,  if  being  safe  and  having  no  reactions  is  the  chief  idea  of  re- 
ligion, then  the  safest  thing  in  the  world  is  a  horse  that  is  spavined, 
and  knock-kneed,  and  broken  down,  and  spare-ribbed,  and  so  feeble 
that  he  cannot  think  of  running  away,  and  could  not  run  away  if 
he  did  think  of  it.  Why,  such  a  horse  is  just  as  safe  as  a  post,  and 
no  better.  Many  men  are  determined  to  be  so  safe  !  Ah,  conserv- 
atism is  such  an  important  thing  !  Prudence,  moderation — these 
are  all-important  in  their  estimation.  "  Let  your  moderation  be 
known,"  say  they.  Moderation  ?  Why  there  is  no  such  modera- 
tion anywhere  on  earth  as  in  an  ice-house.  Things  are  never  dis- 
turbed there.     All  is  proper  there.     There  are  many  persons  who 


358  BELIGIOUS  FEB VOB. 

■would  conserve  by  congelation.  But  not  so  is  it  in  the  tropics, 
where  fruits  abound,  and  grow  luscious  from  every  bough.  Not  so 
does  experience  dictate.  Men  who  have  made  their  mark  in  this 
world  have  been  men  that  had  fire  in  their  souls. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  dignity  and  the  sacredness  of  religion  re- 
quire sobriety  and  moderation  and  propriety.  Yes,  I  think  that, 
too.  The  dignity  and  sacredness  of  religion  are  real.  But  there  is  a 
dignity  of  Summer  as  well  as  a  dignity  of  Winter.  There  is  a  dignity 
of  bounty  as  well  as  of  frugality.  There  is  a  dignity  of  heat  as  well 
as  of  low  temperature.  Intensity  knows  how  to  bs  dignified  while 
there  is  fire  kindled  in  every  faculty.  It  is  itself  sublimely  glorious. 
There  is  no  other  dignity  like  that  of  life.  For  dignity  does  not 
mean  simply  something  put  up  in  a  state  of  exhibition.  It  is  not 
an  exhibitory  quality.     Dignity  inheres  in  the  thing  itself. 

Men  in  worldly  matters  s^liow  what  their  opinion  is  in  regard  to 
the  fervency.  If  a  man  is  engaged  in  his  own  affairs,  he  calls 
himself  a  gentleman,  and  a  man  of  propriety,  although  he  enters 
into  his  work  with  an  intense  enthusiasm.  He  does  in  secular  con- 
cerns, without  dreaming  that  there  is  any  harm  in  it,  the  same  things 
which  he  censures  in  religion.  So  you  shall  see  men  who  through 
the  day  walk  with  their  face  radiant,  their  eye  full  of  life,  their 
gestures  quick ;  who  address  themselves  in  a  versatile  way  to  their 
business-, who  are  successful  in  their  affairs;  who  are  lively  and 
genial  in  their  social  intercourse,  so  that  everybody  likes  them ; 
and  who,  when  they  go  to  their  religious  meetings  in  the  evenings, 
are  dull  of  eye,  stupid  of  tongue,  and  proper  of  body,  everything 
having  gone  to  sleep  in  them,  because  religion  is  such  an  awful 
thing.  And  that  is  what  they  call  an  offering  to  God.  Their  secu- 
lar life  is  earnest  and  real,  and  in  tliat  they  glow,  and  are  on  fire, 
and  they  take  the  fruit  of  it ;  but  when  it  comes  to  their  religious 
life,  they  talk  about  dignity,  and  moderation,  and  propriety.  It  is 
a  sham !  It  is  false  in  philosophy,  false  in  grace,  and  false  in  ex- 
perience. 

Irregular,  imperfect,  one-sided  excitement  is  to  be  criticised  in 
religion  ;  but  it  is  no  argument  against  religion  to  say  that  there  is 
excitement  in  it. 

But  it  is  said,  "  Is  it  not  bad  taste  ?  Does  it  not  lead  to  a  thou- 
sand grotesque  experiences  ?" 

If  one  will  only  walk  once  or  twice  through  the  geometric  gar- 
dens of  Europe,  he  will  see  what  men  understood  by  fine  taste. 
There  he  will  see  one  tree  shaped  like  a  dove,  another  like  a  pyramid, 
and  others  like  gate-posts.  He  will  see  long  rows  of  trees  shaped 
just  alike,  and  forming  arches  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.     And  he 


BELIGIOrs  FEBVOB,  359 

will  see  canals,  with  appropriate  -Fatcr-falls,  where  every  drop  goes 
over  marble  just  so,  and  every  stone  is  polished  and  decorous. 
Gentlemanly  waterfalls  they  are.  Everything  is  very  fine  ;  every- 
thing is  after  a  given  pattern  ;  and  the  pattern  is  for  the  most  part 
geometric.  And  that  is  what  is  called  taste  and  dignity.  And 
a  person  who  has  been  trained  in  that  idea  of  taste,  on  going  into 
our  native  forests,  would  be  shocked  to  see  those  brown  leaves  in 
yonder  heap  that  my  feet  delight  to  tread  upon,  and  that  are  full  ot 
suggestions  and  music.  There  are  bugs  on  the  trees,  as  sure  as  I 
live  !  And  there  are  birds  singing  in  the  branches.  In  Paris,  birds 
are  kept  in  aviaries,  and  in  wire  cages,  and  are  taught  to  sing 
properly.  But  these  birds  of  the  forest  are  uncultured,  and  fly 
hither  and  thither  at  will.  And  here  is  a  tree  that  lops  over  a  brook 
and  looks  as  though  it  wei-e  going  to  fall.  And  this  foreign-bred 
gentleman,  seeing  it,  would  say,  "  If  I  had  that  tree  I  would  make  it 
stand  up.  Trees  were  never  made  to  be  crooked."  Here  is  a  stream 
that  I'uns  and  winds  as  it  pleases,  observing  no  rules  of  exactitude 
or  regularity,  and  his  sense  of  propriety  is  offended.  Here  are  all 
these  objects  of  interest,  following  the  directions  which  are  natural 
to  them,  full  of  instruction  and  inspiration,  and  this  man  despises 
them,  and  says,  "  They  are  not  in  good  taste." 

There  are  many  who  do  not  like  that  great  Park  in  New  York, 
because  it  is  attempted  to  reproduce  nature.  They  want  those  long 
French  lines  of  level  walks,  and  those  glittering  tinsel  arrangements 
which  are  for  show,  for  show,  for  show.  It  is  the  glory  of  our 
grounds,  that  we  have  introduced  into  them  what  is  called  "  natural 
landscape  gardening  ;"  that  we  are  attempting  to  follow  nature, 
and  not  to  conform  to  the  absurdities  of  an  artificial  and  corrupted 
taste. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  in  this  world  that  is  so  truly  the  magister  or 
legislator  of  taste,  nothing  that' is  so  a  position  to  give  canons  of  criti- 
cism and  to  receive  none,  in  matters  of  taste,  as  the  noblest  feelings 
in  the  highest  form  of  their  excitement. 

When  a  mother  has  been  long  separated  from  her  child,  and, 
given  it  up  for  dead,  and  it  is  brought  back  in  an  unexpected  hour, 
and  with  wild  outcry  she  throws  out  her  arms,  and  rushes  to  the 
child,  as  the  wind  rushes,  is  her  attitude,  and  are  her  tones  and  ges- 
tures, to  be  subjected  to  the  rules  of  a  French  dancing-master  ?  Is 
he  to  stand  and  say,  "  You  must  think  of  your  posture,  madam"  ?  I 
tell  you,  a  mother  in  the  paroxysm  of  love  looks  splendidly,  I  do  not 
care  how  she  looks.  The  grandeur  of  feeling  overrules  all  criticism  ; 
and  critics  are  to  take  their  lessons  and  their  measures  from  feelinf , 
and  not  attempt  to  criticise  according  to  their  own  laws. 


360  BELIGIO  US  FEE  VOB. 

Let  a  man's  soul  be  weighed  down  by  a  sense  of  his  infirmity 
and  sinfulness,  and  he  cannot  express  himself  in  bad  taste,  however 
he  expresses  himself.  It  is  not  the  expression  that  I  am  thinking  of  ; 
it  is  the  feeling  that  I  see  ;  and  that  is  always  grand.  Let  a  man, 
like  the  martyr  of  old,  be  pelted  with  stones,  and  let  his  speech  be 
interrupted  and  rendered  grotesque  by  the  blows  which  he  receives ; 
let  his  soul  have  a  vision  of  God,  and  let  him  say,  "  I  see  Jesus 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,"  and  there  is  no  longer  any  gro- 
tesqueness  about  his  speech.  You  cannot  have  gi'otesqueness  in  a 
thing  that  is  itself  superior  to  any  possible  law  of  criticism.  And 
so,  although  the  lower  forms  of  emotion  may  be  criticised  ;  yet, 
there  is  nothing  so  far  above  cavil  as  the  expression  of  genuine 
moral  emotion  in  its  highest  form  of  excitement.  Excitement  is 
indispensable  to  the  highest  Christian  experiences  ;  and  the  expres- 
sion of  these  is  perfectly  reconcilable  to  the  utmost  refinement. 

There  has  been  much  criticism  of  the  forms  of  words  employed 
for  the  expression  of  religious  thought.  Look  at  the  objections 
which  are  made  to  our  hymn-writers.  Nearly  half  of  our  best 
hymns  were  thrown  out  because  they  were  so  amorous.  The  hymns 
of  Wesley  and  Watts,  in  which  they  speak  of  clasping  God,  or  of 
being  clasped  in  his  bosom,  were  condemned  as  too  full  of  love 
emotion.  And  they  were  set  aside  for  a  long  time.  But  we  are  now 
getting  back  to  them.  And  it  is  coming  to  be  understood  that  the 
full  and  glorious  expression  of  real  feeling  in  its  highest  state  is  the 
best  expression,  and  that  those  are  the  best  hymns  which  follow 
such  expression.  And  a  noble  and  generous  nature  cannot  but 
despise  such  criticism  as  would  lead  us  to  reject  such  hymns. 

We  ought  not  to  despise  taste  and  order  and  regularity  ;  but 
you  cannot  have  the  free  expression  of  high  feeling  within  the 
bounds  of  order  and  regularity.  If  you  must  give  up  either  order 
and  regularity  or  high  feeling,  I  say,  Give  up  the  order  and 
regularity. 

Go  to  the  plantation,  and  see  those  poor  children  of  darkness 
(dark  both  ways,  outside  and  in)  gathered  togetlier,  and  singing 
hymns  which  are  a  mixture  of  heathen  mythology  and  Scripture ; 
see  them  spring  into  the  air  with  wild  outcry  and  fantastic  gestures. 
There  are  a  thousand  things  to  be  pruned  and  corrected  in  their 
mode  of  worshiping  ;  but  I  think  there  is  something  worse  than 
their  rude  manifestations. 

Go,  now,  with  me  into  that  stately  room  where  there  are  thirty 
or  forty  or  fifty  people.  Each  one  picks  out  a  whole  seat,  and  sita 
down  on  it.  And  each  one  is  perfectly  proper.  Nobody  speaks  to 
anybody.     And  when  the  choir  sing,  three  or  four  of  the  congrega- 


BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB.  3  6 1 

tion  manage  to  get  up  and  join  in  the  singing.  And  one  gets  up  to 
speak,  and  saya  just  what  he  said  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  and 
what  he  has  repeated  about  once  a  week  ever  since.  And  when  he 
takes  his  seat  another  gets  up  and  goes  through  a  stereotyped 
speech.  And  when  he  is  done  another  gets  up,  and  perhaps  reproves 
them  both.  And  when  he  sits  down  one  or  two  prayers  are  uttered 
— prayers  that  have  been  committed  to  memory,  and  that  are 
repeated  for  the  five  hundred  thousandth  time  !  And  that  is  called 
a  meeting.  There  has  been  no  indecorum,  no  impropriety,  not  a 
single  exceptional  thing,  except  this,  that  they  were  a  set  of  corpses 
making  believe  that  they  were  alive.  They  were  dead,  every  one  of 
them.  Every  one  was  really  insincere  and  hypocritical.  It  was 
a  fantastic  and  grotesque  scene.  And  I  say  that  the  wildest  dance 
of  ex-slaves  in  the  woods  is  better  than  such  a  meeting  conducted 
by  beings  that  call  themselves  men,  but  that  in  reality  are  a  set  of 
galvanized  corpses.  Life  is  the  first  element  of  everything  that 
is  proper  or  in  good  taste. 

But  it  is  said,  "  Does  it  not  lead  to  fanaticism  and  rashness  ?" 
Yes,  but  I  do  not  think  that  these  are  so  bad  as  some  other  things. 
Fanaticism  is  not  the  vice  of  all  temperaments.  It  is  peculiar  to 
those  who  are  over-cerebrated — who  have  too  much  brain.  Some 
of  you  may  have  to  watch  against  the  evils  arising  fi-om  too  much 
brain,  but  not  all  !  It  is  true  that  feeling  may  be  carried  to  excess, 
and  that  it  may  lead  men  wrong ;  but  the  Avant  of  feeling  is  carried 
to  excess  a  thousand  times  where  too  much  feeling  is  once. 

As  all  good  soils  naturally  run  to  weeds,  so  all  rich  natures 
naturally  run  to  faults.  It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  we  cannot 
help  loving  men  because  they  are  full  of  faults  ;  and  there  is  more 
in  that  than  we  may  at  first  suppose.  Activity  with  mistakes 
is  better  than  inactivity  without  mistakes.  Life  with  the  steam 
hissing  all  the  time  is  better  than  death  under  any  circumstances. 
Life  carries  with  it  the  liability  to  error;  and  so  men  that  are  alive 
are  continually  at  fault.  If  the  water  in  a  bucket  is  shallow  enough, 
it  will  never  spill  over,  but  if  it  is  full  to  the  brim  it  will  spill  over 
many  times — for  an  even  bucket  of  water  never  spilled  over  one  side 
that  it  did  not  spill  over  the  other  side  also. 

It  is  true  that  intense  excitement  in  religion  sometimes  leads  to 
rashness  and  fanaticism,  as  very  rich  soil,  besides  producing  the 
crop,  tends  to  produce  an  immense  harvest  of  weeds  ;  but  would  you 
say  to  the  farmer,  "  Barrenness  is  the  best  cure  for  weeds  ;  do  not 
raise  anything,  and  then  you  will  never  have  any  weeds  ?"  I  would 
say,  "  Run  your  cultivator  between  the  rows,  and  cut  down  the 
weeds,  and  let  your  crops  grow.     The  fact  that  the  weeds  want  to 


362  BELIGIOVS  FEEVOB. 

grow  is  a  hint  of  what  a  soil  there  is.  And  the  farmer  rejoices 
in  it. 

And  so,  faults  of  over-expression  and  intensity  are  more  fre- 
quently the  results  of  mis-direction  and  adverse  influences,  than  of 
too  much  feeling.  There  are  a  thousand  things  in  life  that  are  mis- 
chievous which  would  not  be  if  they  had  room  to  expand.  There  are 
men  who  make  trouble  in  churches  because  they  are  not  allowed  to 
express  themselves  freely.  Let  a  man  spread  himself,  and  relieve  his 
mind,  and  he  will  settle  down  and  become  a  manageable  and 
efficient  worker ;  whereas,  if  you  hedge  him  vip,  and  attempt  to  re- 
press the  manifestation  of  his  feeling,  by  and  by,  in  spite  of  the 
deacon  on  this  side,  and  the  deacon  on  that  side,  and  the  minister  in 
front,  he  will  gather  force,  and  burst  out  somewhere.  Let  a  man 
give  loose  to  his  expression.  You  can  bear  it,  and  he  will  be 
relieved. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  politics  of  our  country,  the  everlasting 
speech-making  and  writing  with  Avhich  we  are  afflicted,  are  a  vice. 
They  may  be  a  vice  ;  but  they  are  a  protection  against  revolution. 
They  are  our  safety-valves.  We  let  off  our  steam  in  regard  to  the 
constitution  and  the  laws,  and  th  n  there  is  no  danger.  When 
a  man  has  said  and  written  all  he  wants  to,  he  feels  better.  He  is 
more  comfortable  when  he  finds  that  his  liberty  is  not  restrained. 

And  so,  in  the  conduct  of  churches  and  social  gatherings,  the  lib- 
erty of  speaking  where  there  is  deep  and  strong  feeling,  is  indispen- 
sable to  the  health  of  feeling. 

But  it  is  said,  "  Will  it  not  exhaust  men  to  be  in  such  an  exalted 
state  all  the  time.  Do  you  pretend  to  say  that  it  is  possible  for  us 
to  live  in  these  conditions  of  intense  excitement  at  all  times  ?  No. 
I  do  intend  to  say,  however,  that  nerve-force  is  medicinal  and  nour- 
ishing. I  think  that  nerve  means  doctor,  in  the  best  and  highest 
sense  of  the  term ;  and  that  what  doctors  have  the  credit  of  doing 
is  generally  done  by  nerve-force.  Nerve-force  is,  as  far  as  we  can 
see  it,  life-force,  among  men.  There  is  nothing  safer  than  for  men 
to  have  an  abundance  of  sweet  nerve-force  acting  in  them  and 
through  them.  And  it  is  not  dangerous  even  when  it  is  in  con- 
tinuous activity.  Excitement,  if  it  spring  from  our  higher  na- 
ture, is  joy-inspiring  and  health-giving.  Excitement  that  springs 
from  the  malign  passions  is  corrosive,  and  cannot  be  long  endured ; 
but  that  which  comes  from  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  from  faith, 
from  hope,  and  from  love,  not  only  is  not  exhausting,  but  is  the 
only  thing  that  can  be  endured  for  any  considerable  length  of 
time.  Men  can  go  on  that  forty  days,  whether  in  the  wilderness  or 
in  the  city.     A  man  can  live  longer  on  that  than  on  anything  else. 


BELIGIO  US  FEB  VOB.  363 

Indolence  rusts ;  but  high  excitement  keeps  health  and  strength,  and 
renews  them  when  they  are  diminished,  A  man  rusts  out  more  by 
inactivity  in  a  year  than  he  wears  out  by  wholesome  excitement  in 
a  whole  life-time.  There  are  far  more  chances  that  a  truly  active 
man  Avill  live  a  large  number  of  years,  than  that  a  laggard,  dull  man 
will.  Excitement,  Avhere  it  is  on  the  right  side  of  the  mind — where 
it  is  toward  God — is  to  be  encouraged  and  sought  for. 

These  things  being  so,  there  are  special  reasons  why  we  should 
live  in  these  higher  conditions  of  emotion.  The  importance  of  the 
things  which  we  are  seeking  as  Christians — the  importance  of  our 
characters,  of  our  manhood,  and  of  our  destiny — impresses  itself  in 
such  a  way  upon  one,  that  he  cannot  but  magnify  that  which  will 
the  most  certainly  lead  to  these  results.  And  intensity  of  feeling  is 
one  of  the  most  efficacious  means  to  these  ends. 

I  do  not  blame  men  who  seek  money,  knowing  how  powerful  it 
is  as  a  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  multitude  of  worthy  ob- 
jects. I  do  not  blame  a  man  for  seeking  money  when  he  thinks 
how  many  ways  there  are  in  which,  by  its  use,  he  can  minister  to 
the  comfort  and  happiness  of  his  wife  and  children.  I  do  not  blame  a 
man  for  seeking  money  when  he  sees  hoAv  many  interests  it  may  be 
made  to  control,  and  how  it  may  be  made  an  instrument  for  grati- 
fying taste  and  promoting  culture.  I  do  not  blame  men  who  by 
industry  and  enterprise  seek  influence  and  power.  These  have  their 
relative  importance.  I  do  not  blame  men  who  go  to  the  ISToi-th  Pole 
seeking  their  fortune,  or  who  go  to  the  tropics  for  the  sake  of  laying 
a  foundation  for  their  old  age.  But  oh  !  if  a  man  is  justified  in  seek- 
ing these  lower  things  with  such  intensity,  with  an  industry  and  zeal 
almost  supreme,  how  much  more  should  a  man  seek  Avith  burning 
enthusiasm  and  indomitable  earnestness  that  which,  after  all,  is  more 
important  to  him  than  silver,  or  gold,  or  reputation,  or  place,  or 
anything  else  !  A  man's  sum  of  enjoyment  depends  upon  what  he 
has  in  himself. 

"  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  pos- 
sesseth." 

If  a  man's  heart  is  not  right,  he  may  be  as  rich  as  Croesus  and 
not  be  happy.  It  requires  something  besides  money,  desirable  as  it 
is,  valuable  as  it  is,  and  profitable  as  is  the  honorable  pursuit  of  it, 
to  make  a  man  happy.  And  if  we  justify  a  man's  zeal  and  enterprise 
and  industry,  and  do  not  blame  him  for  compassing  sea  and  land, 
netting  the  one  and  harrying  the  other,  for  the  sake  of  gaining 
earthly  treasures,  ought  we  not  at  least  to  manifest  as  much  industry 
and  enterprise  and  zeal  in  seeking  after  the  imperishable  treasures 
of  God's  kingdom — a  higher  honor,  a  purer  conscience,  a  serener 


364  MELIGIOUS  FEEYOB. 

faith,  and  a  hope  that  penetrates  into  the  invisible  world  ?  Ought 
we  not  to  feel  as  much  enthusiastic  emotion  about  these  as  about  the 
baser  things  which  noui'ish  the  body  ? 

Consider,  too,  tbe  sense  which  they  who  earnestly  seek  these  bet- 
ter riches  have  of  the  providence  of  God,  and  of  the  all-surrounding 
love  of  God,  and  of  the  ministration  of  God's  angels  around  about 
us.  We  do  not  wonder  when  we  see  happy  families  bound  together. 
There  are  households  which  seem  like  an  organ,  every  member  of 
which  seems  like  a  separate  stop,  and  all  the  members  of  which,  to- 
gether, are  choral,  playing  to  each  other,  and  with  each  other,  and 
into  each  other ;  and  if  we  look  with  approval  upon  the  nameless 
intimacies,  the  thousand  attachments,  the  many  happy  unions  which 
we  see  formed  in  life ;  if  we  are  not  shocked  at  the  connec- 
tions and  inter-connections  of  hearts  that  are  on  fire  with  afibction 
toward  each  other — those  of  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  chil- 
dren, brothers  and  sisters,  or  friends ;  if  when  these  things  come  to 
our  notice  our  souls  are  filled  with  joy,  shall  we  not  rejoice  when  we 
behold  higher  fruits  of  manhood  than  these  ?  Shall  a  man  love  his 
imperfect  fellow-man,  his  equal,  or  one  that  is  less  than  his  equal ; 
and  shall  we  not  experience  a  fervor  of  love  when  surrounded  with 
the  affluence  and  exceeding  riches  of  the  divine  love,  that  fills  the 
heaven,  and  overpours  and  fills  the  earth — a  love  that  with  its  sacred 
touch  inflames  the  heart,  and  fills  the  household,  and  spreads  itself 
in  many  glinting  forms  through  life  ?  When  we  have  bestowed  upon 
us  the  fountain  and  glory  of  the  divine  love,  shall  we  be  content 
with  torpid  feeling?  Shall  we  not  glow?  Shall  our  emotions  not 
be  permitted  to  mount  up  into  serene  heights — into  that  love  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus  which  passes  knowledge  ?  Shall  we  delight  to  see 
men  rejoice  in  each  other's  love,  and  say,  "I  do  not  blame  them  for 
the  wildest  exhibitions  of  joy;"  and  shall  we  not  rejoice  in  the  love 
of  God  with  a  joy  that  knows  no  bounds? 

A  distant  relative  of  a  man  who  has  been  poor  all  his  life  has 
died  and  left  him  all  his  property,  so  that  he  now  has  an  income  of 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  And  all  men  congratulate  him  on  his  good 
fortune.  And  when  he  says,  in  an  ecstasy  of  gladness,  "  I  will  send 
for  my  old  father  and  mother,  and  make  them  comfortable,  and  my 
sisters  shall  have  the  education  which  they  have  so  long  coveted, 
and  I  will  help  my  brother  who  is  struggling  for  a  livelihood,"  we 
do  not  blame  him  for  expressing  the  happiness  which  he  feels. 

But  we  have  an  eternal  inheritance  that  is  untaxed  ;  we  have  a 
wealth  that  never  can  be  diminished ;  and  shall  Ave  not  mount  up  in 
ecstasy,  in  contemplation  of  it  ?  Is  a  man  at  liberty  to  be  enthu- 
siastic when  he  greets  his  friends  with  manifestations  of  love,  and  to 


BELIGIOUS  FEBVOL.  365 

rejoice  \vucu  he  sees  the  demonstrations  of  love  in  the  household, 
and  between  man  and  man ;  and  shall  he  be  conscious  that  there  is 
a  brooding  divine  love,  and  be  criticised  because  he  has  enthusiastic 
and  upmounting  feelings  ?  No.  If  any  persons  in  this  world  have 
a  right  to  enthusiasm  and  intensity  of  emotion,  it  is  Christians.  If 
any  persons  are  to  serve  with  unexampled  zeal  and  overflowing  joy, 
it  is  those  who  have  been  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  who 
by  the  love  of  God  have  been  made  heirs  of  salvation. 

Bring  your  best  faculties,  in  their  best  state,  in  their  highest  con- 
dition, in  their  fullest  equipment ;  for  God  is  worthy  of  them  all, 
and  heaven  and  immortality  are  worthy  of  them  all. 

Christian  brethren,  do  not  be  afraid  of  feeling.  Be  afraid  of  bad 
feelings  ;  but  let  right  feelings  flame  and  spread.  Let  your  light  so 
shine,  and  your  warmth  so  radiate,  that  men  seeing  and  feeling  them 
may  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  we  will  for  the  last  time  this  Summer 
stop  together  and  give  expression  to  our  feelings,  and  rejoice  in  the 
fellowship  and  sympathy  which  we  have  with  our  blessed  Saviour, 
as  we  partake  of  the  symbols  of  his  body  which  was  broken  for  us, 
and  of  his  blood  which  was  shed  for  us.  All  you  who  belong  to  this 
church  are,  of  course,  without  invitation,  at  liberty  to  remain.  All 
who  belong  to  any  Christian  church  on  God's  earth  are  affectionate- 
ly invited  to  stay.  All  those  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sin- 
cerity and  in  truth,  whether  they  belong  to  any  church  or  not,  are 
invited  to  tarry.  Everybody  who  has  that  in  his  heart  which  calls 
out  for  Jesus ;  everybody  who  in  his  own  judgment  says,  "  I  need 
help,  and  I  accept  Christ,  and  I  desire  to  make  an  offering  of  love  to 
him, — "  I  invite  to  partake  with  us  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  If  there  is 
a  struggling  soul  here  who  thinks  it  will  help  him  in  the  way  of 
duty,  and  make  his  burden  lighter,  to  take  these  emblems,  let  him 
take  them;  and  if  he  has  not  joined  the  church,  and  he  thinks  he 
ought  to  join  it,  let  him  join  it  afterwards.  Christ  first,  and  then 
the  church.  If  you  are  a  child  of  Christ,  and  if  you  lift  the  feeblest 
hands  toward  him,  or  have  the  least  aspiration  in  that  direction,  for 
his  sake  sit  down,  dear  brother,  dear  sister,  and  strengthen  your- 
selves by  these  memorials,  which  were  meant  to  be  food  for  your 
body  and  life  for  your  souL 


366  BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB. 

PKAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON* 

Accept  our  thanks,  O  heavenly  Father,  that  that  which  leason  oould 
not  do,  nor  experience  find  out,  thou  hast  done  for  us  with  infinite  conde- 
scension, opening  a  way  by  which  we  should  know  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  his  name  is  Love.  Thou  art  the  Father  in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and  in 
all  the  universe.  Thou  dost  love  those  whom  thou  hast  created,  and  all  that 
thou  art  governing.  Thy  very  severities  are  the  strength  by  which  thou  dost 
divide  between  the  good  and  the  evil.  The  stripes  and  the  punishments 
which  thou  dost  inflict,  are  not  sprung  from  hatred.  Thou  dost  not  love  suf- 
fering. It  is  love  that  corrects.  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so  thou 
dost  pity  us.  Thou  knowest  our  frame,  that  we  are  dust.  Whom  the  Lord 
loveth  he  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he  receiveth.  We 
rejoice  that  punishment  is  not  demoniac  but  divine,  that  thou  art  ruling 
everywhere  with  force  where  things  need  force,  and  with  reason  where  things 
need  reason,  and  with  affection  where  things  need  affection,and  are  suscepti- 
ble of  it.  But  everywhere,  by  force  and  by  reason  and  by  affection,  thou 
art  governing  for  infinite  good ;  and  thou  rejoicest  in  it,  and  wilt  rejoice  to 
the  very  end.  And  we  rejoice  that  we  may  come  into  sympathy  with  thee 
by  becoming  like  unto  thee.  May  we  understand  that  we  cannot  know 
our  God  except  as  we  are  like  him.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  for  they 
shall  see  God.  May  we  have  such  purity  in  every  faculty  that  we  may  be 
able  to  discern  our  Head — ours  in  infinite  and  glorified  form — and  rejoice  in 
God,  and  be  swallowed  up  in  him. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us,  now,  in  thy  presence,  such 
gracious  manifestations  of  thyself  that  we  may  not  seem  to  ourselves 
strangers  nor  foreigners.  May  this  be  to  us  our  Father's  house.  May  this  day 
be  a  day  of  blessing  to  us.  Be  thou  here  to  administer  thine  own  gifts.  And 
grant  that  every  one  may  feel  that  he  is  searched  out  and  known.  For  thou 
dost  know  every  one  of  us  by  name,  and  by  occupation,  and  by  place ;  and 
all  our  history.    We  rejoice,  O  Lord,  that  thou  hast  made  this  manifest. 

And  we  pray  that  we  may  have,  to-day,  a  sense  of  thy  i^ersonal  interest  in 
each  one  of  us.  Bless  those  that  need  the  consoling  influences  of  thy  Spirit. 
May  the  Comforter  be  their  companion ;  and  may  the  joy  of  thy  salvation 
chase  away  their  griefs ;  or  may  they  be  able  to  bear  them. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  teach  those  that  mourn  how  to  mingle  gladness 
with  mourning.  Teach  those  in  trouble  how  out  of  trouble  there  may  come 
the  purifying  flame  as  well  as  the  smoke. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  those  who  are  weak, 
and  who  are  discoui-aged,  and  who  are  ready  to  perish,  may  straighten  up, 
and  feel  that  God  is  their  strength — God  in  the  heaven,  and  God  on  the  earth 
— the  God  that  watches  the  sparrow,  and  that  counts  the  very  hairs  of  their 
head.  May  they  feel  that  they  have  a  right  to  come  to  him  in  every  time 
of  trouble.  May  they  gird  up  their  loins,  and  cast  away  the  cowardice  of 
fear  and  despondency,  and  walk  vaUantly  to  the  end  of  life — till  thou  shalt 
call  them  home. 

Let  any  who  are  perplexed  as  to  the  way  of  duty  find  the  light  shining 
upon  then*  path.  May  they  see  plainly  the  course  which  they  ought  to  pur- 
sue. And  help  them  by  discipline  to  discern  things  right  or  wrong.  Help 
them  more  and  more  perfectly  to  be  able  to  interpret  for  themselvts  what  is 
right  and  what  is  duty  day  by  day. 

Grant  thou  that  all  the  memories  of  the  past  may  be  sanctified  to  every 
one.  How  many  there  are  whose  thoughts  are  withdrawn  from  the  future, 
and  borne  back  into  the  captivity  of  the  past !    How  many  there  are  who 

•  Immediately  following  the  reception  of  members  into  the  Church. 


BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB.  367 

seem  to  themselves  as  though  they  had  been  carried  away  by  the  flood  1 
How  mauy  there  are  whose  hopes  are  disheveled !  How  many  there  are 
who  are  without  motive,  and  almost  without  a  wish  to  live !  How  many 
there  are  who  mourn  in  the  secret  places  of  the  past  1  How  many  there  are 
who  see  their  hopes  and  expectations  blighted!  Look  out  upon  them,  O 
Lord,  we  beseech  of  thee,  and  rebuke  them  and  bring  them  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness of  their  own  imagination.  Make  them  feel  that  they  are,  in  life,  not  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  and  not  to  move  round  and  round  a  centre  of  their 
own  experience,  as  if  the  end  of  living  was  to  please  themselves.  May  they 
look  forth  as  thou  dost,  and  see  the  world  that  groans  and  travails  in  pain 
until  now.  How  many  there  are  that  need  instruction !  How  many  that 
need  comforting !  How  many  little  ones  need  rearing !  How  much  there  is 
to  be  done !  and  how  hard  it  is  to  do  it !  And  oh,  that  we  might  be  filled 
with  a  better  enten^rise.  Oh,  that  we  might  be  borne  away  from  our  selfish 
longings  and  desires,  and  from  mourning  over  unrealized  hopes,  into  a  more 
glorious  sphere  of  activity. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  make  us  patient.  If  we  are 
to  be  pillars  in  the  house  of  our  God,  may  we  know  how  to  bear  burdens.  If 
we  are  to  be  soldiers  of  our  Master,  may  we  know  how  to  take  hardness. 

"We  pray  that  we  may  have  all  tenderness  shown  us  in  things  pure  and 
sacred,  but  that  all  tenderness  may  be  taken  away  from  us  which  leads  to 
self-indulgence  and  to  cowardice.  And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt 
help  us  more  and  more  to  preach  Christ,  not  only  with  the  lip,  but  with  the 
eye,  with  the  hand,  with  the  things  which  we  help  others  to  do,  and  with  the 
things  which  we  do  ourselves.  May  we  be  as  lights  to  those  that  are  around 
about  us.  May  they  look  to  us  for  gentleness  and  tenderness.  And  in  prac- 
ticing them  toward  those  in  our  midst,  may  we  enlarge  our  conception,  and 
see  that  it  is  the  pattern  in  small  measure  of  that  glorified  whole  which  thou 
art  in  heaven.  Lord  Jesus,  giving  thyself  as  a  perpetual  offering,  forever, 
living  for  others  and  finding  therein  thine  own  joy  and  satisfaction. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  tliy  servants  who,  this 
morning,  have  been  joined  to  this  household  of  faith,  may  not  only  be  joined 
outwardly  and  historically  to  us,  but  may  have  a  life  in  Christ,  with  the  same 
hopes,  and  joys,  and  sorrows,  and  activities  and  sympathies  which  all  his 
true  disciples  have. 

We  pray  for  any  that  have  wandered  into  strange  faitlis.  We  beseech  of 
thee  that  thou  wilt  restrain  them  and  bring  them  back  to  the  way  of  recti- 
tude. And  may  those  that  have  gone  wrong,  not  be  discoui-aged.  Although 
they  have  stumbled,  may  they  rise  up  and  go  forward  again. 

And  wilt  thou  strengthen  the  weak  knees  and  the  feeble  hands.  May 
those  Avho  have  not  the  power  to  sustain  themselves,  be  sustained  by  thy 
strength.  May  none  attempt  to  rely  wholly  upon  their  own  might.  May 
they  take  tiiee  as  their  staff,  and  in  the  mountainous  way  may  they  lean  upon 
thee ;  and  in  the  dark  valley  may  they  still  find  strength  and  support  in  thee. 
We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  Avilt  bless  the  young.  The  little  children — 
will  the  Lord  love  them,  and  teach  us  to  love  them  more  and  more.  And  in 
the  various  spheres  of  life  in  which  tliey  move,  may  we  deal  gently  and  ten- 
derly with  them.  And  may  we  sow  in  them  the  seeds  of  honor,  and  truth, 
and  purity  and  duty. 

Bless,  O  Lord,  those  who  are  going  out  of  childhood,  and  are  taking  hold 
of  the  world  with  all  its  strange  fascinations  and  delusions.  We  beseech  of 
thee,  grant  that  they  may  live  for  that  wliich  is  true,  and  right  and  just 
among  men ;  for  that  which  is  lovely ;  for  that  which  is  divine.  And  may 
they  join  to  their  thoughts,  ^ven  thus  early,  a  wide  expanse  of  the  future, 
that  they  may  not  seem  to  themselves  simply  creatures  between  the  cradle 


3  G  8  BELIGIO  US  FEB  YOB. 

and  the  grave,  but  may  think  of  immortality,  even  now,  when  they  are 
beginning  their  life ;  and  rejoice  in  their  infinite,  outstretched  life. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  on  whom  rest  the 
burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  May  they  never  be  weary  in  well-doing.  May 
they  not  be  tempted  to  say,  "  I  have  done  my  part."  May  they  not  take  their 
measure  of  what  they  are  to  do  from  the  measure  of  what  they  have  done. 
May  they  take  their  measure  from  their  own  strength  and  power,  not  think- 
ing nor  feeling  that  they  have  done  enough,  so  long  as  there  is  more  that  they 
can  accomplish. 

And,  O  Lord,  bless  the  aged  who  are  among  us.  As  they  are  prepared 
to  lay  aside  the  leaves  of  summer,  and  in  autumn  stand  waiting  for  winter, 
may  they  glow  with  autumnal  colors.  May  the  glory  of  the  Lord  rest  upon 
them.  May  their  most  joyful  and  serene  and  beautiful  days  be  the  days  in 
which  they  are  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  wanderers  from  us— all  that  are  upon 
the  sea ;  all  that  are  in  distant  lands ;  all  that  are  far  away  separated  from 
us  by  distance  and  occupation  ;  and  all  that  are  still  further  separated  by 
dissipations  and  vices  and  crimes.  O  Lord  our  God,  remember  the  absent, 
and  bless  them. 

And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  in  our  varied  lives,  all  roads  may  lead  to 
the  heavenly  gate,  and  that  the  households  of  the  Church  may  be  gathered 
as  a  great  household  of  faith  at  last,  where  former  things  shall  have  past 
away,  and  where  pain  and  crying  shall  be  known  no  more  forever. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


XIX. 

A  Safe  Guide  for  Young  Men. 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOR  YOUNG  MEN. 


•'  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me 
in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on, 
Bo  that  I  come  again  to  my  father's  house  in  peace ;  then  shall  the  Lord  be 
my  God.  And  this  stone,  which  I  have  set  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God's  house : 
and  of  all  that  thou  shall  give  me  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth  unto  thee."— 
Genesis  XXVIII.,  2(>-:i2. 


You  are  familiar  with  this  history.  It  is  the  history  of  a  very 
early  day;  and  yet,  by  many  important  threads  it  is  connected 
intimately  with  the  history  of  modern  times.  It  is  the  same  human 
nature  as  ours,  though  under  different  circumstances. 

Jacob  was  not  permitted  to  form  a  marriage  connection  with  the 
daughters  of  the  land  in  which  he  was  sojourning.     He  would  brino- 
into  his  household  idolatrous  tendencies.     So  he  was  sent  back  to 
the  pai'ent' stock.     Journeys  then  wei"e  very  diiferent  from  journeys 
now,  even  in  that  land.     From  the  extreme  south  of  Palestine,  he 
had  to  thread  his  way  amidst  multiplied  difficulties.     Alone,  unat- 
tended, on  foot,  with  such  provision  as  he  could  gather,  he  wandered 
to  the  extreme  north,  and  far  beyond,  and  to  the  east,  the  land  of 
his  fathers,  the  precise  location  of  which  is  much  in  dispute.    And  it 
was  on  his  way  there  that,  lying  down  to  sleep,  and  propjnng  him- 
self up  with  nothing  softer  than  a  heap  of  stones,  he  had  a  vision 
and  a  promise  of  God  made  to  him.     Then  it  was  that,  on  awakino- 
he  was  profoundly  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  divine  presence 
and  all  his  life  was  opened  up  to  him.     Then  he  made  this  vow  and 
covenant  with  his  God :   If  God  would  go  with  him,  and  prosper 
him ;  if  he  would  preserve  him  from  danger,  and  minister  to  him 
the  necessary  substance  of  life,  then  on  his  part  he  would  take  the 
Lord  for  his  God.     And  he  also  made  a  vow  of  benevolence :  that  he 
would  be  unselfish,  and  would  devote  a  tenth  part  of  his  substance 
to  the  works  of  goodness — that  is,  to  God. 

There  is  something   especial,  to   my  mind,  in   a   part  of  this 
promise : 

"  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will 
give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my 
father's  house  in  peace ;  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God." 

Sunday  Evening,  March  13,  1871.  Lesson  :  Psa.  LXXIII.  1-36.  Hymns  (Plymouth 
Collectiou;  :  Kos.  8'ja,  bTiJ,  353. 


372^  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  TOUNQ  MEN. 

Some  have  thought  that  it  was  one  of  the  many  gods  that  then 
were  moving  round  the  world,  and  trying  to  get  worshipers ;  and 
that  Jacob  promised,  if  he  would  bestow  his  patronage  on  him,  he 
would  make  him  his  God,  and  become  one  of  his  votaries. 

I  look  upon  it  very  differently  ?  What  had  he  to  offer  ?  What 
was  there  that  could  be  an  offering  to  God  ?  There  was  but  one 
thing,  and  that  was  his  own  affections.  It  was  a  filial  offering.  "  In 
requital  of  this  goodness  to  me,  thou  shalt  be  my  God.  I  will  love 
thee.  I  will  obey  thee.  I  will  serve  thee."  A  man  has  no  higher 
offer  to  God  than  that  of  his  affections.  And  there  is  none  that  is 
more  esteemed. 

Now,  every  young  man  who  leaves  his  father's  house,  and  comes 
down  to  great  cities  like  these,  may  be  said  to  be  in  many  respects 
making  such  a  journey  as  the  patriarch  made ;  not,  to  be  sure,  going 
to  seek  a  wife  among  the  father's  former  kinspeople,  but  going  to 
seek,  substantially,  the  establishment  of  his  household  and  his  for- 
tune. He  leaves  his  father's  house,  and  goes  out  into  the  great  wil- 
derness of  the  world,  and  encounters  a  thousand  more  dangers  than 
ever  the  patriarch  did,  more  insidious,  more  powerful,  more  easily 
seducing ;  and  there  is  no  young  man  that  can  afford  to  go  out  and 
begin  a  life  in  these  great  cities,  where  beat  upon  him  every  one  of 
the  passions  of  the  human  heart,  and  the  fiercest  temptations.  No 
man  can  afford  to  go  out  into  life  and  begin  for  himself  without 
making  a  covenant  with  God.  And  I  do  not  know  of  any  covenant 
that  could  be  more  simple,  more  rational,  or  more  proper  in  every 
way,  than  this  one  that  the  old  patriarch  Jacob  made. 

"If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and 
will  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to 
my  father's  house  in  peace ;  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God." 

Among  the  visions  that  the  young  indulge  in,  I  think  there  is 
none  more  beautiful,  none  that  springs  from  a  nobler  impulse,  than 
this,  that  if  it  please  God  to  give  them  prosperity  there  shall  come 
a  time  when  they  will  go  back  to  their  father's  house,  and,  instead 
of  the  rude  farm-house  in  which  he  dwelt,  build  him  a  far  more 
convenient  one  ;  and  that  say  of  the  dear  old  mother  whose  face  is 
covered  with  toil-marks,  having  given  herself  night  and  day,  and 
stinted  herself,  that  she  might  have  the  means  of  putting  forward 
her  childi'en,  "  She  shall  not  work  forever  so."  Many  a  man  has  the 
reputation  of  being  avaricious  and  addicted  to  business ;  of  working 
night  and  day  to  hoard ;  but  there  is  at  the  bottom  a  I'oot  of  filial 
love ;  and  he  says,  "  The  day  shall  come  in  which  the  old  people 
shall  not  be  slaves.  I  will  redeem  them  from  this  bondage,  and  will 
make  them  happy."  And  it  is  a  very  generous  feeling,  and  a  very 
noble  one. 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  TOUNG  MEN.  373 

There  are  a  great  many  who,  perhaps,  feel  that  they  shall  return 
yet,  one  day,  to  the  place  from  which  they  started.  If  our  youth 
is  happy  I  thmk  we  never  forget  our  early  associations,  and  no 
place  afterward  seems  so  congenial  to  us  as  that  where  we  spent 
our  boyhood  days.  How  beautiful  the  plainest  scenery,  how  be- 
witching the  most  common-place  things,  which  are  woven  into  the 
memory  of  one's  childhood  liome  !  How  do  men  that  traverse  their 
own  land,  ord  circumnavigate  the  globe,  come  back  to  describe  some 
little  plain  place,  some  small  village,  almost  without  attractions,  as 
the  most  charming  place  they  have  ever  seen  !  Ah  !  they  carry  in 
their  eyes  and  hearts  the  things  that  make  it  beautiful.  Thus  the 
memories  of  childhood  are  sweet,  precious,  beautiful,  and  generous. 

The  impulse  with  many  young  men  whose  parents  ai'e  already 
prosperous,  so  that  the  necessity  does  not  exist  of  lifting  them  out 
of  poverty,  is,  perhaps,  that  they  will  go  back  and  settle  down  at 
the  old  home  after  they  have  made  themselves  a  substantial  fortune 
by  their  own  fidelity  and  enterprise. 

But  between  the  purpose  and  the  performing  is  a  region  far 
longer,  morally  speaking,  than  that  between  Beer-sheba  and  Paden 
Aram.  And  between  the  stai'ting  from  one's  father's  house,  and  the 
coming  back  to  it  again,  there  are  more  dangers  crowded,  often, 
than  were  ever  ci'owded  into  the  journey  and  experience  of  Jacob. 

Now,  although  I  have  preached  a  great  many  sermons  to  the 
young,  I  do  not  think  I  have  preached  one  too  many.  Because 
temptations  are  like  tides  that  come  in  continuous  periods,  alterna- 
tions; and  sermons  ought  to  come  as  often,  if  not  oftener,  than 
these  alternations.  They  ought  to  keep  filling  up,  filling  up,  filling 
up  the  intervals  that  otherwise  would  be  liable  to  be  filled  with  evil 
influences. 

Many  of  you  have  no  father  in  New  York  or  Brooklyn.  There 
is  no  .one  here  that  thinks  for  you,  or  cares  particularly  about  you, 
80  far  as  your  better  nature  is  concerned.  There  are  many  that 
would  tamper  with  you,  and  lower  the  tone  of  your  conscience. 
There  are  many  that  would  make  the  way  of  wrong  easier  for  you. 
Some  of  you  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  friends  that  hold  you  up. 
Perhaps  many  of  you  have  the  felicity  of  being  surrounded  by 
wholesome  household  influences.  But  many  hundreds  come  to 
this  church,  either  regularly  or  from  time  to  time,  who  have  no 
person  in  the  Avorld  near  them  that  thinks  for  them,  prays  for  them, 
and  talks  plainly  to  them.  Therefore  I  feel  in  some  sense  as  though, 
now,  my  years  and  my  relations  to  you  justify  my  taking  the  place 
to  you  of  father,  and  giving  you  repeated  counsels,  bearing  upon 
the  ordinary  procedure  of  your  life.  And  this  is  what  I  propose  to 
do  to-night. 


374  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN.  . 

I  desire  that  every  one  who  has  come  down  to  this  great^mart, 
where  so  much  is  won  and  so  much  is  lost,  this  vast  workshop, 
where  so  much  is  made  of  good  and  of  evil,  these  terrible  shambles, 
where  so  many  souls  and  bodies  are  slaughtered,  should  remember 
how  much  their  success  here  depends  upon  a  few  simple,  common- 
place moralities.  I  desire  to  reiterate,  as  I  have  often  and  often 
asseverated,  how  much  your  prosperity  depends  upon  your  industry, 
your  frugality,  your  self-restraint  in  all  things,  your  truthfulness, 
your  honesty,  your  fidelity.  And  I  the  more  emphasize  this  now 
because  the  contrary  impression  is  always  prevalent,  for  very  sim- 
ple reasons  which  I  will  mention  in  a  moment. 

You  are  particularly  liable  to  be  misled,  just  now,  by  the  idea 
that  there  are  many  brilliant  chances  of  fortune  in  coming  down  to 
a  city  like  this.  Setting  aside  the  ordinary  courses,  the  ordinary 
motives,  and  the  ordinary  instruments  of  productive  industry,  young 
men  come  to  New  York  thinking  of  it  as  a  great  gold  mine.  As 
one  who  has  read  in  the  Arabian  Nights  of  the  man  that  fell  down 
a  precipice  and  found  himself  in  a  field  covered  with  diamonds 
which  he  could  have  for  the  picking  up ;  so  young  men  come  to 
New  York  almost  thinking  it  is  a  place  where  they  will  have  only 
to  fill  their  pockets  and  be  rich.  They  come  with  the  most  ex- 
aggerated ideas  of  the  wealth-producing  power  of  these  great  cities. 

Now,  they  are  greatly  mistaken.  You  take  as  large  a  popula- 
tion as  that  of  New  York,  averaging  it  through  the  country,  and 
you  will  find  the  law  of  productive  industry  to  be  the  same  in  both 
city  and  country.  You  are  concentrated  here.  Here  you  are  pecu- 
liarly situated.  But  according  to  the  law  of  political  economy  the 
chances  of  success  are  the  same.  Luck,  or  chance,  which  is  the  basis 
of  the  fool's  philosophy,  has  no  more  to  do  with  permanent  pros- 
perity in  these  cities  than  anywhere  else.  There  are  sudden  uplift- 
ings  of  prosperity,  and  there  are  just  as  sudden  collaj^ses.  There 
are  brilliant  adventurers  here,  who  have  for  a  time  an  apparent  and 
specious  prosperity  ;  but  so  it  is  everywhere.  And  success  in  life 
here,  or  where  you  were  born  and  brought  up,  depends  substantially 
upon  morality,  industry,  frugality,  foresight,  sagacity,  perseverance 
in  well-doing — that  is,  in  working  upon  fidelity  and  honor.  Truth 
and  honesty  are  the  great  staple  elements  which,  if  a  man  has  them 
and  employs  them,  will  certainly  give  him  prosperity,  thougli  they 
may  not  give  him  wealth,  nor  lift  him  to  places  of  honor  or  trust. 
Those  are  things  which  are  to  be  determined  much  by  a  man's 
natural  forces.  Now  and  then  incidental  forces  may  come  in,  but 
in  the  main,  judging  by  great  averages,  men  find  about  the  places 
which  they  are  fitted  for,  and  reap  and  gain  about  that  which  they 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  TOUKG  MEN.  375 

are  qualified  to  reap  and  gain.  And  productive  forces  are  employed 
best  by  those  who  have  the  simple,  sterling,  substantial  moralities  of 
life.  Lying  and  cheating  and  swindlmg  are  no  more  prosperous  in 
New  York  than  in  Canandaigua,  or  in  Mount  Vernon,  or  in  the 
smallest  village  in  the  land.  They  are  prosperous  nowhere.  They 
are  the  devil's  delusions  that  mislead  men.  For  there  can  be  no 
permanent  prosperity  except  that  which  is  built  upon  the  broadest 
grounds  of  common  moi'ality. 

'  Wealth  is  to  be  gained  by  paying  for  it,  in  thought,  in  indus- 
try, or  in  some  other  way,  so  that  you  shall  have  given  a  fair  equiv- 
alent for  it.  The  wealth  which  you  collect,  you  must  earn.  This  is 
a  principle  which  men  cannot  long  evade.  The  sphere  in  which  you 
work  here  is  larger  than  that  in  which  you  worked  in  the  country ; 
but  it  is  a  sphere  which  is  governed  by  precisely  the  same  laws.  The 
climate  in  cities  is  not  essentially  different  from  that  in  the  country. 
There  are  the  same  seasons  here.  There  are  the  same  Summer 
and  Winter.  There  are  the  same  light  and  heat.  There  is  the 
same  electricity.  Nature  is  the  same,  and  so  are  the  great  elements 
of  morality,  and  the  great  elements  of  political  economy ;  the  vague 
notion  that  wealth  comes  by  some  lucky  stroTce,  some  brilliant  essay, 
some  fortunate  alliance,  or  some  short  cut  which  other  men  have  not 
discovered,  is  quite  as  lalse  here  as  there.  Men  will  fly  much  sooner 
than  they  will  become  prosperous  by  any  such  scheme  as  this. 

Hundreds  and  thousands  have  come  down  here  despising  the  sim- 
ple moralities  on  which  they  have  been  brought  up ;  despising  the 
productive  forces  patiently  and  continuously  applied ;  despising  small 
profits  honestly  made  and  surely  held ;  despising  simplicity  and  un- 
ostentatious gain.  To  make  a  shoAV  is  one  of  the  insanities  of  ap- 
probativeness.  It  is  one  of  the  disclosures  of  vanity,  of  the  over- 
weening sense  of  a  man's  own  capacity,  of  a  sort  of  delirious  joy  and 
expectation  of  success,  and  of  the  exhibitory  eftects  of  success  in  after 
life. 

I  therefore  beseech  you  not  to  set  aside  all  those  great  laws  which 
have  been  proved  generation  after  generation,  age  after  age,  and 
which  are  still  exemplified  in  our  midst.  Especially  do  not  be  led 
astray  by  any  appearance.  If  wicked  men  prosper,  do  not  give  up 
your  belief  that  morality  is  safer  than  wickedness.  If  men  who  are 
absolutely  rotten  shine  by  the  phosphorescence  of  decay,  and  dazzle 
your  eyes,  remember  that  in  doctrine  their  feet  shall  slide.  I  am  just 
as  sure  that  ill-gotten  gains  will  destroy  the  getter,  and  that  immo- 
rality inflated  into  prosperity  will  by  and  by  collapse  like  an  over- 
blown bladder,  as  I  am  of  my  existence.  You  had  better  road  the 
seventh  Psalm  once  a  week  nowadays,  when  glittering,  corrupt  and 


376  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOE  YOUNG  MEN. 

corrupting  men  seem  to  be  carrying  off  the  honors  and  emoluments  of 
life — those  of  you,  especially,  who  are  asking  yourselves  whether  it 
is  worth  your  while  to  wash  your  hands  in  innocency  and  self-denial. 
In  God's  due  time,  when  his  great  wheel  comes  round,  multitudes 
of  men  who  have  disregarded  his  laws  will  be  destroyed. 

Surely,  the  universe  is  conducted  upon  principles  of  God  which 
make  truth,  and  honor,  and  industry,  and  integrity  more  profitable 
than  fraud  and  deceit  and  malignity  can  be.  The  manhood  that  is 
in  man  is  safer  to  be  trusted  than  the  animalhood  that  is  in  man. 
And  if,  here  and  there,  there  are  some  glorified  SAvine  that  root  for 
jewels  and  gold,  and  wear  them  in  their  snouts,  do  not  you  become  a 
hog  that  you  may  be  prospered  like  them.  Manhood  yet,  against 
swinehood.  For,  remember  that  however  a  man  may  seem  to  pros- 
per by  violating  the  laws  of  morality  and  purity,  he  forfeits  confi- 
dence, respect,  sympathy,  all  that  which  holds  a  man  up  and  rewards 
him  when  he  stands  in  the  esteem  and  love  of  his  fellow-men  in  the 
community.  Although  for  a  time  he  may  sustain  himself,  the 
time  comes  for  him  to  fall  and  be  dashed  to  pieces.  Sooner 
could  you  gather  up  the  fragments  of  a  glass  goblet  that  had 
fallen  from  a  high  point  upon  a  stone  pavement,  than  you  could 
put  a  corrupt  man  on  his  feet  again  when  he  had  once  gone 
down.  And  you  that  now  envy  him,  and  for  the  sake  of  favor  would 
servilely  follow  him,  will  be  among  the  men  that  will  hiss  at  him, 
and  say,  "  I  knew  it  would  be  so.     I  always  despised  him." 

Let  me  beg  of  you  who  have  left  your  home,  and  come  down  to 
this  great  city  to  make  your  fortune,  not  to  forget  the  plain  living 
of  your  father's  house.  You  were  brought  up  frugally.  You  did 
not  use  to  wear  very  fine  clothes.  You  were  accustomed  to  dress 
very  substantially;  but  farmers'  boys  do  not  generally  wear  broad- 
cloth when  they  are  working  on  the  farm.  And  there  are  young 
men  here  who  would  not  have  to  reach  their  hand  out  far  to  get 
hold  of  the  old  coarse  suits — their  brown  tow  clothes  for  Summer, 
and  their  substantial  homespun  woolen  clothes  for  Winter. 

When  such  young  men  come  down  to  New  York,  people  seem  to 
them,  I  suppose,  as  butterflies  do  when  they  come  out  of  the  chrys- 
alis, and  open  up  their  fine  wings,  and  begin  their  Summer's  cruise. 
Young  men,  when  they  come  here,  feel  that  they  must  be  re-born  in- 
to respectability  and  gentility ;  and  their  idea  of  gentility  is  to  have 
fine  clothes,  and  a  little  money  in  the  pocket,  and  to  play  gentleman. 
Under  such  circumstances  men  go  down  very  soon.  They  lose  the 
simplicity  of  their  tongue.  They  eat  strange  viands,  which  have 
strange  ways  with  them ;  and  they  drink  strange  drinks  which  they 
have  not  learned  to  mix  at  their  father's  board.     Honest,  simple- 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOE  YOUNG  MEN.  377 

minded,  plain,  excellent  people  were  your  parents  ;  and  you  lived 
temperately  and  moderately  at  home;  but  you  want  to  shine  out 
here;  and  you  become  dishonest  in  order  to  do  it.  Some  can  afford 
to  dress  as  people  in  the  city  dress;  but  are  you  of  them? 

You  came  down  here  almost  with  nothing.  Your  father  was  un- 
able to  do  more  than  pay  your  traveling  expenses.  And  you  have 
only  slender  earnings.  You  receive  only  a  boy's  or  young  man's 
salary.  It  is  only  just  enough  to  keep  you  from  year's  end  to  year's 
end,  provided  you  are  extremely  frugal  and  economical. 

Now,  there  are  two  courses,  either  of  which  you  can  take.  One 
is  to  say,  '*  I  am  not  living  nor  dressing  so  well  as  my  companions, 
and  I  must  have  fine  clothes  and  better  fare."  The  other  is  to  say, 
with  stern  manliness,  "I  have  come  down  here  to  make  my  way; 
and  honesty  and  simplicity  require  that  I  should  not  live  any  higher 
than  I  myself  can  earn  the  means  of  living.  I  will  be  no  man's 
pauper  or  beneficiary.  I  will  make  what  I  take;  and  what  I  make 
and  take  shall  support  me."  The  discipline  which  you  get  from  this 
latter  course  of  self-denial  is  better  than  going  to  college.  Many 
a  man  cradled  in  learning  gets  no  discipline  ;  but  a  young  man 
who,  having  been  reared  and  trained  in  self-indulgence,  leaves 
his  father's  house,  and  comes  to  the  city,  and  says,  "  I  will  be  be- 
holden to  no  man ;  I  can  afford  to  live  as^plain  as  any  man,  both  in 
regard  to  diet  and  clothes,  if  it  is  necessary  to  my  manhood,  and  I 
will  not  have  anything  which  I  cannot  fairly  earn ;  I  will  be  inde- 
pendent and  establish  myself," — such  a  young  man  gets  a  discipline 
which  is  worth  a  university  education.  By  forming  that  purpose 
and  adhering  to  it  he  is  educating  himself  in  the  very  elements  of 
manhood.     He  is  making  a  man  of  himself. 

Do  you  suppose  men  think  less  of  you  because  you  dress  plainly  ? 
Fools  may,  but  men  do  not.  Do  you  think  your  chances  in  life  are 
less  because  you  feel  ashamed  to  show  a  man  where  your  room  is, 
and  where  you  sleep  ?  Why,  many  a  man  has  slept  in  a  barn  who 
was  better  than  many  another  who  slept  in  mansions  and  palaces. 
A  man  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  to  say,  "I  am  poor,  and  I  cannot 
do  so  and  so."  It  is  the  curse  of  America;  since  there  are  no  orders 
of  nobility  here,  men  are  ashamed  to  admit  that  they  are  poor.  The 
young  man  defends  himself,  and  says,  "  I  am  not  so  poor  as  you  take 
me  to  be."  Even  sensible  people  yield  to  the  temptation  of  the  devil, 
and  are  ashamed  to  acknowledge  that  they  work. 

I  suppose  there  are  persons  in  this  congregation  who  keep  but  a 
single  servant,  and  do  half  their  work  themselves,  and  who,  if  you 
go  to  see  them,  will  talk  as  if  they  did  not  need  to  work,  but  did  it 
because  they  chose  to.    They  are  willing  to  have  you  think  that  they 


378  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  TOUNQ  MEN 

work  from  choice ;  but  they  would  not  for  anything  have  you  under- 
stand that  they  have  to  work ;  that  they  cannot  get  along  without 
it.  It  takes  a  great  deal  of  common  sense  to  enable  a  person  who 
moves  in  genteel  society  to  say,  without  blushing,  "  I  have  to  do  my 
own  work." 

People  are  a  great  deal  more  sensible  in  Europe  than  in  America 
in  such  matters.  A  man  of  moderate  means  there  says,  "  I  must 
travel  frugally.  I  cannot  order  expensive  things.  I  am  not  able  to 
do  it."  There  is  an  honor  in  living  within  one's  means;  and  a  man 
who  is  truly  bred  will  do  it. 

Young  men  are  ashamed  to  have  it  understood  that  they  wear  a 
silver  watch  because  they  cannot  afford  to  wear  a  gold  one.  It  is 
thought  a  young  man  who  cannot  have  a  gold  watch  in  this  country 
cannot  be  much.  And  when  they  have  got  a  gold  watch,  they  must 
have  a  gold  chain.  And  when  they  have  got  a  gold  chain,  they  must 
have  something  dangling  at  the  end  of  it.  And  these  things  become 
necessities.  The  young  man  wants  them,  he  thinks  about  them,  he 
dreams  of  them.  Other  young  men  have  them,  and  why  should  not 
he  ?  There  is  a  man,  his  rival,  who  is  no  better  looking  than  he, 
and  who  has  no  better  education  than  he;  but  oh,  that  vest  and 
that  jewelry !  They  nearly  kill  him  with  envy.  He  cannot  afford 
to  go  without  these  these  things  because  his  young  comjjanions  have 
excited  his  vanity,  and  corrupted  his  simplicity,  and  gone  far  toward 
undermining  his  manhood.  He  is  unwilling  to  live  plainly,  and  more 
than  plainly,  as  his  circumstances  dictate  that  he  should  at  the  begin- 
ning of  life. 

There  are  men  that  stand  high  in  wealth  and  prosperity,  and 
will  to  the  end  of  life,  who  know  well  that  when  they  came  to  New 
York  they  lived  in  a  way  that  it  would  pain  them  to  see  one  of 
their  sons  live.     And  yet,  it  was  the  making  of  them. 

If  young  men  live  plainly  and  simply,  it  is  but  for  a  time.  And 
if  they  can  afford  it  one  year,  they  can  afford  it  two  years,  if  neces- 
sary. And  if  they  can  afford  it  two  years,  they  can  afford  it  four. 
A  man  can  afford  to  live  plainly  until  he  is  able,  by  his  own  in- 
dustry, to  live  better.  Do  not  walk  before  you  creep.  Do  not  run 
before  you  walk.  Be  willing  to  live  low,  and  if  necessary  lower 
than  the  working-man.  Your  manhood  should  be  more  to  you  than 
your  clothes  or  your  food. 

Let  me  beseech  of  you  not  to  throw  off  hastily  your  old  house- 
hold affections.  Keep  home  bright  in  your  heart  and  in  your  mem- 
ory. You  have  had  better  opportunities  than  your  sister,  or  than 
your  younger  brother.  They  toil  on,  one  in  the  kitchen  or  the  dairy, 
and  the  other  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shop.     You  have  blossomed  out 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN.  379 

into  a  young  merchant.  .  And  if  you  have  a  manly  spirit  in  you, 
you  will  never,  for  one  single  moment,  forget  that  they  are  your  kin, 
and  dear  to  you.  You  will  glory  in  them  and  over  them.  You  will 
also  remember  the  sun-browned  father  and  the  wrinkled  mother. 
They  will  be  everything  to  you.  No  pictorial  beauty,  and  no  fan- 
ciful belle  will  be  to  you  what  father  and  mother,  and  brother  and 
sister  are. 

When  I  was  in  college  a  young  man  came  there  who  was  in  a 
state  of  abject  and  utter  poverty.  lie  was  determined  to  have  an 
education.  He  sawed  wood  for  a  livelihood.  For  more  than  a  year 
he  slept  on  the  floor  in  his  room,  wrapping  himself  up  in  a  blanket. 
He  boarded  himself;  and  his  food  consisted  mostly  of  Indian  meal 
pudding  and  molasses.  He  worked  in  vacation  and  term-time  to 
earn  a  scanty  pittance  by  which  to  educate  himself.  When 
he  had  finished  his  course  in  college,  the  first  thing  he  did 
was  to  put  his  brother  next  younger  than  he  through  an  academy. 
Then  the  two  together  took  hold  of  hands  and  brought  up  a  sister. 
She  was  educated,  and  has  moved  very  high  in  influence,  though  not 
in  fashion,  since  that  time.  And  the  three  have  had  as  much  brain- 
power on  the  age  in  which  we  live  as  any  three  persons  that  you 
could  select.  And  as  for  me,  I  could  forgive  ten  thousand  infelic- 
ities in  consideration  of  such  hearty  home-love  and  genuine  feeling 
of  brotherhood. 

And  now  that  you  have  broken  off"  from  your  homes,  do  not 
feel  that  you  are  better  than  those  that  you  have  left  behind.  Let 
your  heart  never  forget  your  homestead,  nor  the  old  people,  nor  the 
young  people. 

About  the  most  despicable  thing  that  I  can  recollect  was  this : 
A  young  lawyer  in  a  former  parish  of  mine  had  risen  to  a  conspicu- 
ous position.  One  day  I  heard  that  his  father  and  mother  had  come 
to  town.  On  making  inquiry  respecting  them,  I  was  told  that  he 
had  taken  them  out  to  the  edge  of  the  town  to  an  obscure  boarding- 
place,  and  was  unwilling  to  have  any  of  his  friends  know  that  they 
were  there.  He  Avas  ashamed  to  have  anybody  see  the  old  folks.  I 
learned  that  they  were  very  reputable,  only  they  were  coarse,  blunt, 
Hoosier  country  people.  He  had  risen  to  some  little  eminence,  and 
he  felt  above  them,  and  was  ashamed  of  them.  I  had  been  a  warm 
friend  of  that  young  man,  but  from  that  time'  coolness  toward  him 
sprang  up  in  my  heart.  That  a  son,  largely  dependent  upon  the 
toil  Avhich  had  kept  his  father  and  mother  in  their  low  condition, 
they,  as  it  were,  plucking  out  of  their  own  bosom  the  feathers  that 
made  his  nest  soft,  they  giving  their  life  that  he  might  live  better 
than  they — that  he  should  be  ashamed  of  them  seemed  as  ig- 
nominious as  anything  could  possibly  be. 


380  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN. 

Do  not,  then,  let  your  new  associations  and  new-fangled  notions 
of  gentility  make  you  ashamed  of  the  plain  old  home,  nor  of  the 
plain  old  people  that  are  there.     Be  hearty ;  be  manly  ;  be  faithful. 

And  if  before  you  came  from  home  you  pledged  your  troth  to 
any  maiden  heart,  do  not  let  the  devil's  temptation  of  a  more  favor- 
able connection  that  shall  carry  you  up  in  life  make  you  unfaithful 
to  your  old  covenants  and  vows  to  her.     Be  faithful. 

Do  not  make  haste  to  change  your  religion.  There  is  an  im- 
pression that  when  a  man  comes  down  to  the  city  he  must  of  course 
be  liberalized ;  that  there  are  many  things  at  home  which  are  nar- 
row ;  many  notions  which  are  prejudices,  and  many  which  are  super- 
stitions ;  much  that  a  man  ought  to  leave  behind  him.  And  that  is 
all  true.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  you  are  in  a  situation  to  judge 
of  what  things  had  best  be  left  behind,  or  what  things  had  best  be 
changed.  Do  not,  therefore,  suddenly  change  anything.  If  at  home 
you  have  been  accustomed  to  observe  the  Lord's  day,  I  beseech  of 
you,  do  not  let  the  looseness  or  laxity  of  the  city  take  away  from 
you  this  most  precious  habit.  Some  may  observe  it  more  strictly 
than  others,  some  may  observe  it  by  a  different  form  of  observ- 
ance ;  but  in  some  way  let  that  day  be  marked  which  has  always 
been  marked. 

If  it  were  but  for  one  single  thing  which  my  childhood  Sunday 
did  for  me,  it  would  be  worth  all  the  pains  I  liad  to  take  to  keep  it ; 
and  that  is  the  spiritualizing  influence  which  it  produced  upon  the 
whole  natural  world  by  its,  I  had  almost  said,  preternatural  silence. 
I  remember  that  when  on  Litchfield  hill  the  Sunday  sun  came  up 
and  spread  abroad  its  light,  no  rattling  wagons  and  no  shouting 
voices  were  heard.  All  things  were  still.  And  my  imagination 
made  them  stiller.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  heavens  had  a  depth 
which  they  never  had  on  other  days,  and  that  nature  had  a  serenity 
which  it  never  wore  on  other  days.  It  was  a  day  of  rest.  The  un- 
quivering  leaves  seemed  to  rest.  The  birds  seemed  more  domestic 
and  at  rest.  All  labor  was  suspended.  The  cattle  on  a  thousand 
hills  rested.  The  old  worn  horses,  with  harness  thrown  off,  rested 
in  the  pasture.  And  even  the  team  that  came  to  carry  the  old 
people  to  church  had  a  Sunday  jog  far  different  from  that  which 
it  had  on  other  days.  Everything  seemed  to  speak  to  me  of  pro- 
found rest.  And  nature  was  stamped  with  a  moral  character,  so 
that  from  that  day  to  this  I  have  had  a  thought  of  nature  which  I 
should  not  have  had  except  through  the  influence  of  this  day  of 
rest.  And  whatever  may  be  the  ecclesiastical  arguments  and  re- 
ligious considci-ations  in  respect  to  this  day  of  rest,  it  seems  to  me 
that  no  young  man  ought  to  leave  out  of  his  memory  the  Lord's 
day. 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOE  TOUKG  MEN.  381 

You  will  have  peculiar  temptations  to  break  up  your  religious 
habits.  There  will  be  nobody  to  look  after  your  religious  interests. 
Your  associations  with  your  jiarticular  church  and  neighbors  will  be 
gone.  You  are  a  stranger  in  a  strange  place.  You  are  situated  so 
that  it  is  hard  for  you  to  settle  down  and  form  Sabbath  connections. 
Nevertheless,  keep  your  Sundays  in  some  way.  I  admit  that  it  is 
difficult ;  but  all  the  more  benefit  it  will  be  to  you  if  you  succeed  in 
doing  it. 

You  are  in  a  boarding-house.  There  is  no  Sunday  there ;  there 
are  no  books  there ;  there  is  no  company  for  you  there.  Where 
shall  you  go  ?  What  shall  you  do  with  yourself  Sunday  morning  ? 
What  shall  you  do  with  yourself  Sunday  afternoon  ?  What  shall 
you  do  with  yourself  Sunday  night  ?  There  is  a  great  deal  of  home- 
sickness and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  heart-sickness  on  Sundays. 
There  are  a.  great  many  young  men  who  would  give  everything  in 
the  world  if  on  Sunday  there  was  somebody  that  cared  for  them, 
and  would  put  the  arm  about  them  and  say,  "  My  dear  old  fellow, 
how  do  you  get  on  ?"  somebody  whose  heart  should  strike  on  their 
hearts.  I  know  how  it  is.  I  am  sorry  it  is  so.  I  would  to  God 
there  were  some  way  in  which  the  young  man  severed  from  all  moral 
relations,  in  the  city,  could  have  more  Sunday,  and  more  chance  to 
keep  Sunday  than  he  now  has.  There  will  be  more  provisions  in 
this  direction  one  of  these  days.  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions will  yet  have  Sunday  homes  where  young  men  shall  find  com- 
pany, and  some  place  in  which  to  renew,  in  part  at  least,  the  associ- 
ations of  their  childhood-Sunday. 

Do  not  forget  your  Bible — and  this  must  come  very  strong 
against  many  of  you.  Where  is  your  Bible  ?  I  wish  I  could  take 
the  statistics.  That  was  one  of  the  things  which,  when  you  went 
away  from  home,  your  mother  put  down  at  the  bottom  of  your 
trunk — for  she  packed  your  trunk.  And  when  a  mother  packs  the 
trunk  of  her  boy  that  is  going  away  from  home,  many  are  the  tears 
that  she  sheds  over  it.  And  when  your  mother  packed  your  trunk 
she  wept,  and  murmured  prayers  in  your  behalf,  while  you  were 
frisking  about,  buoyant,  hopeful,  full  of  exhilaration  at  the  prospect 
of  going  down  to  New  York.  And  she  puts  the  Bible  carefully 
down  at  the  bottom.  She  had  been  saving  what  she  could  for  a 
whole  month  to  get  money  enough  to  buy  the  nicest  Bible  in  the 
village  store.  And  in  it  is  her  crooked  but  beautiful  writing — for 
what  mother's  handwriting  is  not  beautiful  when  she  writes  a  child's 
name  in  a  Bible  ?  And  besides  your  name,  it  may  be  that  she  wrote 
some  little  text  there.  And  after  wrapping  some  of  your  things 
about  the  Book  she  filled  up  the  trunk.  And  when  it  was  slung  on 
to  the  coa<^h^  and  you  disappeared,  she  went  back  to  the  place  where 


382  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  TOUNO  MEN. 

she  packed  it,  and  prayed  for  you.  And  after  you  came  to  New 
York  you  perhaps  took  this  Bible  out  of  the  trunk  a  few  times  on 
Sunday,  and  felt  so  badly  that  you  could  read  but  little.  And  it  may 
be  that  the  young  fellows  where  you  boarded,  who  never  thought 
of  reading  the  Bible,  laughed  at  you.  After  that  perhaps  you  tried 
to  read  it  secretly.  But  finally  you  forgot  to  do  even  that.  And 
not  wishing  to  lose  the  Bible  entirely,  you  put  it  back  in  your  trunk. 
And  it  has  been  there  five  years,  and  you  have  not  once  taken  it 
out.  Where  is  your  Bible  ?  There  is  a  whole  history  in  the  an- 
swer to  that  question.  Where  is  your  Bible  f  Take  care  of  your 
Bible,  and  your  Bible  will  take  care  of  you. 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  with  you  the  question  raised  in 
modern  times  as  to  the  authenticity  of  this  Book.  I  know  that  it 
is  as  good  a  pilot  as  ever  was.  No  man  can  go  wrong  if  he  follows 
the  ethics  of  the  Bible.  And  there  is  no  place  whe.  e  men  need  its 
guidance  so  much  as  in  these  very  cities.  When  you  go  home  to- 
night some  of  you  may  not  be  able  to  give  the  heads  of  this  dis- 
course ;  but  I  beseech  of  you  to  remember  one  thing — to  hunt  up 
your  Bible,  and  read  it  again,  and  make  it  the  man  of  your  counsel, 
and  your  guide.  It  is  your  mother's  Bible.  It  is  your  father's 
Bible. 

And  then  do  not  abandon  your  church.  I  do  not  mean  by  that, 
that  a  man  may  not  go  from  the  Presbyterian  Church  into  the 
Episcopal,  or  from  the  Episcopal  into  the  Methodist  ;  but  this 
I  mean  :  that  it  is  not  wise  for  a  man  hastily  to  change  his  faith  or 
denomination.  It  is  not  wise  for  this  reason  ;  that  although  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  religion  that  is  blessed  of  God  and  made  efficacious 
outside  of  the  ordinary  doctrinal  features,  yet,  after  all,  it  is  often- 
times the  case  that  experience  and  associations  make  our  own  church 
and  religion  best  to  us.  I  should  always  advise  a  person  not  to 
change  unless  he  had  a  clear  conviction  that  it  was  best  for  him  to 
change.  I  never  try  to  change  anybody.  There  is  not  a  person  in 
this  church  of  two  thousand  members  who  can  say  that  I  ever  said 
a  word  to  bring  him  here  away  from  the  church  in  which  he  was 
bred.  I  have  the  most  profound  respect  for  early  associations.  I 
think  they  are  full^of  nutriment,  of  rest,  and  of  restraint.  I  should 
say,  therefore,  generally.  If  you  have  been  accustomed  to  worship  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  continue  there,  unless  there  is  some  strong 
and  clear  reason  why  you  should  leave  it.  If  you  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  go  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  continue  to  go  to  that.  Go 
where  the  associations  of  your  childhood  will  still  be  played  upon, 
and  will  still  tend  to  hold  you  in  the  right  way.  If,  however,  after 
due  consideration,  you  find  a  way  that  makes  you  happier,  holier, 
more  prayerful,  more  self-denying,  then  never  refuse  to  change.    Do 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN.  383 

not  do  it  from  novelty,  and  do  not  do  it  from  a  mere  transient 
preference  ;  but  if  you  find  the  spirit  of  godliness  quickened  in 
you,  and  a  deeper  Christian  life  incited  in  you,  under  one  ad- 
ministration rather  than  under  another,  go  to  the  one  that  affects 
you  most  favorably.  For  the  effect  of  a  church  upon  your  heart 
is  the  best  test  of  that  church's  desirableness. 

Do  you  ask  me  whether  I  would  recommend  one  to  do  it,  no 
matter  what  the  denomination  might  be  ?  Yes,  without  any  excep- 
tion. No  child  of  mine  should  ever  come  to  me  and  give  me  evi- 
dence that  his  life  was  really  becoming  sweeter  and  deeper  and 
holier,  and  ask  my  permission  to  go  into  any  other  fold  of  Christ  on 
earth,  that  I  would  Avithhold  such  permission.  I  would  go  with  that 
child,  and  put  his  hand  in  the  pastor's  hand,  and  give  him  up  cheer- 
fully. It  is  the  hidden  soul-life  that  is  more  important  than  any  of 
the  schools  by  which  that  soul-life  is  to  be  ministered  unto. 

But  as  far  as  possible  it  is  desirable  that  a  man's  later  life  should 
run  in  the  line  of  his  earlier  life.  There  is  something  beautiful  to 
me  in  the  thought  of  worshiping  with  the  same  view  of  God  v/hich 
we  did  in  our  childhood.  There  is  something  very  sad  to  me 
in  every  change  which  I  make  from  my  childhood  views.  I  do  not 
like  novelties  ;  I  would  to  God  I  could  believe  just  as  I  did  Avhen  I 
was  a  boy  ;  but  changes  ai-e  going  on  in  different  directions.  It  is 
not  pleasant  to  me.  It  is  very  painful.  It  is  like  tearing  a  brancli 
out  of  a  tree.  I  would  like  to  worship  ray  father's  God,  as  my  father 
worshiped  him.  I  would  like  to  die  with  the  same  symbols  in  my 
hand  with  which  I  began  my  childhood  life.  But  I  cannot.  And 
when  you  cannot  do  it,  see  that  the  changes  which  you  make  are 
made  in  the  way  of  greater  godliness,  and  not  in  the  way  of  fashion 
or  of  worldly  influence. 

Beware,  in  such  great  cities  as  this,  of  the  influence  of  the  external 
world  upon  your  ideas  of  human  life  and  duty.  In  such  cities  as 
this  there  are  many  things  that  have  an  effect  upon  our  education. 
There  is  much  that  goes  in  at  the  ear,  and  much  that  impresses  us 
through  the  eye.  Our  senses  are  perpetually  stimulated  by  the 
things  which  are  around  about  us.  Life  tends  to  become  practical 
rather  than  spiritual.  The  value  oi  things  tends  to  gain  at  the  expense 
of  the  value  of  qualities.  In  the  city  you  need  to  4ive  by  faith  more 
than  anywhere  else.  You  need  to  realize  invisible  things,  which  are 
more  importantly  true  than  any  visible  things  can  be.  In  cities  we 
are  dazzled  by  the  glitter,  deafened  by  the  din,  and  worried  by  the 
excessive  excitement.  Men  are  very  easily  led  into  worldly  routine. 
They  cease  to  become  reflective.  They  live  by  sight  ;  by  the  things 
that  they  hear  ;  by  newspaper  lore.     They  live  upon  the  surface. 


38  A  A  saf:£j  quibe  fob  young  men. 

They  neither  study  nor  read  carefully.  They  seldom  think  upon  or 
review  what  they  read,  for  the  purpose  of  being  built  up  inwardly 
and  solidly  of  the  best  qualities  of  manhood.  Therefore  beware 
of  importunate  influences  coming  on  your  senses.  See  to  it  that  you 
are  carrying  on  a  digestion  within,  and  building  up  a  true  knowl- 
edge, and  educating  yourself  aright  both  for  this  life  and  the  life 
which  is  to  come. 

Though  you  are  young  and  strong  and  healthy,  there  is  no  cer- 
tainty that  your  life  will  be  long  continued  in  this  world.  I  do  not 
say  this  to  alarm  you.  You  have  often  been  to  Greenwood.  Is  it 
not  a  beautiful  place  to  go  to  ?  There  is  no  place  that  is  more  beau- 
ful  to  me  than  that.  I  would  as  lief  drive  through  those  grounds 
as  through  the  Park — and  I  do  not  know  but  I  would  rather.  In 
the  Park  I  see  people  that  are  dead  though  living ;  and  in  Green- 
wood I  see  people  that  are  dead,  and  stay  dead.  But  there  is  noth- 
ing that  aiFects  me  so  much  in  Greenwood  as  to  see  how  few  old 
people  are  buried  there.  Really,  one  would  suppose,  from  seeing 
the  inscriptions  on  the  grave-stones,  that  there  had  not  been  any  old 
people  in  New  York.  I  have  sometimes  gone  along  with  my  pencil 
and  made  memoranda  of  the  number  of  persons  that  died  in 
youth,  or  in  the  bright  and  radiant  mid-day  of  life  ;  and  the  pro- 
portion of  such  would  surprise  you.  If  you  think  not,  please  go 
down,  sometime,  and  see  for  yourselves.  I  think  it  would  do  you  all 
good.  And  then,  to  see  the  places  where  poor  people  are  buried, 
and  where  strangers  are  buried — I  think  nothing  in  the  whole  city 
of  New  York  ought  to  do  a  man  so  much  good  as  that.  When 
I  see  them  I  have  a  great  many  thoughts.  I  imagine  where  the 
strangers  came  from,  how  they  died,  and  how  they  felt,  when  dying. 
I  imagine  a  thousand  things.  And  especially  to  see  where  the 
children  of  the  poor  are  buried  touches  me  more  than  anything 
else.  I  am  not  sorry  to  see  people  who  are  able,  put  carved  monu- 
ments or  grave-stones  with  inscriptions  on  them  over  the  graves  of 
their  children  ;  but  to  see  people  go  and  bury  their  own  little  chil- 
dren there  with  nothing  but  a  head-stone,  and  a  little  box,  with  a  glass 
cover,  containing  the  child's  play-things — little  dolls,  little  wagons, 
shells,  pebbles,  and  such  things — to  show  that  they  love  the  dar- 
lings, this  always  affects  me  more  than  anything  else.  These  graves 
of  poor  children  are  sacred.  And  the  playthings  that  cover  them 
are  sacred.  I  do  not  believe  that  even  the  vagrant  boys  of  the  Five 
Points  would  steal  them.  It  seems  as  though  God's  angels  took 
care  of  the  children  of  the  poor.  To  go  through  those  grounds 
and  reflect  upon  these  things,  has  done  me  a  great  deal  of  good, 
and  it  will  do  you  a  great  deal  of  good  if  you  will  try  it. 


A  SAF^  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN:  385 

I  say  this  to  come  to  the  thought,  that,  while  I  would  not  have 
you  go  away  gloomy  and  sad,  I  desire  that  every  one  of  you  should 
think  that  you  may  be  spending  your  last  years  on  earth,  and  that 
what  you  are  to  do  here  below  you  are  to  do  quickly.  I  would 
like  to  have  you  from  day  to  day,  and  from  month  to  month,  and 
from  year  to  year,  lay  out  your  pleasures  and  ambition3,and  all  that 
is  to  compose  your  life,  with  a  consciousness  that  you  shall  ere  long 
give  account  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ.  You  are  not  far  from 
it.  Many  of  you  shall  be  called  before  many  days  to  attend  the 
funerals  of  some  that  are  here.  Some  of  you  will  die  soon,  and 
some  of  you  will  live  to  be  forty  or  fifty  years  old ;  but  you  do 
not  know  which  will  go  nor  which  will  remain ;  and  it  is  good  for 
us  all,  once  in  a  while,  to  stop  and  listen  to  the  beat  of  the  surf  on 
the  shores  of  eternity.  It  is  well  once  in  a  while  to  cleanse  our- 
selves of  the  fascinations  and  allurements  of  this  world  by  bathing 
in  the  still  and  solemn  waters  of  imagined  death.  Oh,  Avhat  cool 
ness  it  will  give  to  the  fever  of  men !  Oh,  what  a  check  and  re- 
straint it  will  be  to  heated  passions !  Oh,  what  moderation  it  will 
impart  to  over-excited  imaginations  and  desires  ! 

I  beseech  of  you  (more  especially  I  speak  to  those  who  have  no 
other  adviser,  and  who  are  willing  to  listen  to  my  words  as  to  an 
older  brother's  or  a  father's  words)  to  pause.  Think  whether  in 
your  career  any  other  thing  is  so  good  for  you,  or  will  make  you 
so  prosperous,  as  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  old  patriarch,  and 
say,  as  he  said, 

*'  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and 
will  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to 
my  father's  house  in  peace ;  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God." 


386  A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUHG  MEN, 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  bless  thee,  our  Heavenly  Father,  for  all  thy  great  mercies  to  us  in  the 
days  that  are  past,  and  for  that  hope  which  has  been  inspired  by  our  experi- 
ence for  the  days  to  come.  Thou  hast  watched  over  us  tenderly.  Thou  hast 
granted  to  us  to  know  thee,  whom  to  know  aright  is  life  eternal.  Thou  hast, 
by  thy  Spirit,  breathed  a  new  light  into  our  souls ;  and  by  this  hght  thou  hast 
brought  us  to  a  higher  life,  and  to  a  better  judgment  of  things  below. 

And  now  we  stand  by  thee,  instructed  of  thee,  and  beloved  of  thee,  child- 
ren unabashed,  bold  with  the  boldness  of  affection,  and  with  thy  command  to 
come  boldly  to  the  Throne  of  grace  to  obtain  mercy  and  help  in  time  of 
need.  Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee  this  evening,  that  we  may  have  the  token 
of  thy  presence.  For,  is  there  ever  a  time  that  is  not  a  time  of  need  ?  Do  we 
not  need  thee  for  the  body's  sake  ?  Do  we  not  need  thee  more  for  the  sake  of 
the  soul  that  is  within  the  body  ?  Do  we  not  need  thee  rising  up  and  sitting 
down,  in  counsel,  in  action,  at  home  and  abroad  ?  Wherever  we  are,  do  we 
not  need  thee  ?  Do  we  not  need  thee  in  our  joy  and  in  our  sorrow,  in  our  sin 
and  in  our  repentance,  in  our  backshding  and  in  our  return  to  God  ?  Thou 
art  everywhere,  and  we  continually  find  thee  present,  and  always  need  thy 
presence,  for  refreshment,  for  confirmation  in  good,  for  dissuasion  from  evil, 
for  all  helpfulness.  And  we  are  glad  to  think  that  thou  art  He  who  art  sit- 
ting in  the  center  of  all  power,  and  from  whom  all  things  do  proceed ;  that 
thy  heart  toward  us  is  the  heart  of  a  Father,  and  that  thy  feelings  are  the 
feelings  of  long-suffering  and  tender  mercy. 

And  we  rejoice  that  thou  wilt  not  so  love  us  as  to  suffer  us  to  come  to  evil 
and  to  harm.  Thou  wilt  not  pass  by  transgression.  Thou  wilt  not  suffer 
guilt  to  go  unpunished.  Thou  dost  love  us  so  that  thou  wilt  be  faithful  to  us 
as  we  are  faithful  to  our  children.  We  chastise  them  with  stripes  which 
wound  our  own  hearts.  So  wilt  thou  be  faithful  to  us,  and  wilt  not  suffer  us 
to  go  wrong  unchastised  and  unrebuked. 

And  we  rejoice  that  it  is  in  thine  heart  to  bring  us  toward  true  manhood. 
It  is  not  in  nature  to  do  it ;  it  is  not  in  our  own  will ;  it  is  not  in  the  will  of 
those  arovmd  about  us.  Of  thee  we  must  be  born.  We  must  find  our  way  to 
ourselves  through  thy  guidance.  We  rejoice,  therefore,  in  the  manifestation 
of  thyself  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  shedding  abroad  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 
which  we  are  enhghtened  and  inspired,  and  by  which  we  shall  be  sanctified. 

And  now,  we  pray  that  we  may  submit  ourselves  to  thy  benevolent  kind- 
ness, to  thy  care  and  education,  more  implicitly.  May  we  as  httle  children 
be  led  by  the  hand  of  thy  providence.  May  we,  as  children  that  have  grown 
to  know  their  parents,  be  led  by  the  love  of  thy  heart.  And  we  beseech  of 
thee  that  we  may  from  day  to  day  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

If  there  be  hindrances  in  the  way  of  any,  wilt  thou  help  them  to  remove 
them.  If  there  be  easily  besetting  sins,  help  them  to  overcome  them.  U 
there  be  temptations  that  he  in  ambush,  mightier  than  their  power  of  resist- 
ance, open  a  way  of  escape  for  them.  If  there  be  those  that  are  discouraged 
from  their  repeated  weaknesses  and  failures  to  be  what  Christians  should  be, 
grant,  O  Lord,  that  they  may  still  pluck  up  their  courage.  May  they  gird 
themselves  for  new  enterprises,  and  to  the  end  of  life  strive  for  that  bright 
and  shining  and  better  way. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  have  under  thy  guardianship  those  that  are  begin- 
ning life,  before  whom  are  all  its  experiences.  We  who  have  thrust  so  much 
of  life  behind  us,  who  have  made  our  sign,  our  stamp,  our  seal,  upon  so  many 
years — what  have  we  in  the  future  but  to  hope  for  the  consummation  of  the 


A  SAFE  GUIDE  FOB  YOUNG  MEN.  387 

tew  remaining  years  which  are  allotted  us  here,  and  then  our  entrance  upon 
the  heavenly  rest? 

How  many  there  are  who,  after  their  life  in  the  world  was  closed,  lived 
on,  and  still  live,  in  the  world  beyond !  And  the  many  who  stand  in  strength 
and  good  cheer,  the  many  who  stand  ignorant  of  right  and  wrong,  the  many 
whose  passions  are  ready  to  draw  them  aside,  the  many  for  whom  snares  are 
laid,  the  many  who  are  watched  for  that  they  may  be  destroyed — O  thou  that 
wast  their  fathers'  God,  may  the  prayers  that  have  been  offered  for  them  be 
heard. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  by  thy  grace  and  providence  snatch  those 
from  the  hands  of  the  destroyer  who  vdthout  help  will  be  destroyed.  Return 
any  that  are  already  going  into  forbidden  ways.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt 
confirm  and  estabUsh  in  the  right  way  those  who  are  doubting.  And  we 
beseech  of  thee  that  the  young  may  grow  up  more  virtuous,  more  honorable, 
more  wise,  and  more  just,  than  those  have  been  who  have  preceded  them. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  cleanse  this  great  city,  and  the  great  city 
upon  our  border.  Grant  that  purity  and  morality  and  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  love  of  man  may  prevail,  and  injustice  and  wickedness  and  corruption  in 
every  form  be  rebuked  and  hide  themselves. 

We  pray  for  our  whole  land.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  we  may  have  peace 
in  our  midst,  and  that  men  may  be  bound  to  their  fellow-men  by  benevc  lence, 
and  that  there  may  be  no  more  hating  and  hurting  and  destroying. 

Oh,  for  the  day  of  righteousness !  Oh,  for  the  time  when  the  heart  of  God 
shall  be  felt  in  the  hearts  of  men !  May  there  be  more  pity  and  less  contempt. 
May  there  be  more  helpfulness  and  less  hindering.  May  there  be  more 
knowledge  and  less  prejudice.  May  there  be  more  that  shall  bind  together, 
and  less  that  shall  divide  and  separate. 

Let  thy  kingdom  come  everywhere.  May  nations  learn  war  no  more.  May 
peace  come  and  settle  down  upon  the  earth,  its  final  possetsion.  And  to  thy 
name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  evermore.    A.me7u 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  spoken 
to-night.  Grant  that  the  beginnings  of  thoughts  of  good  may  not  be  extin- 
guished. Thou  that  wilt  not  break  the  bruised  reed  nor  quench  the  smoking 
flax  until  thou  dost  bring  forth  judgment  unto  victory,  oh,  be  tender  and 
gentle  with  the  rising  thoughts  of  a  better  life  in  those  who  have  been 
beguiled !  Oh,  help  those  to  break  away  from  sin  who  have  been  ensnared 
by  it  Have  compassion  on  those  who  are  destroying  themselves.  Hold  back 
the  children  of  pious  parents.  Hold  back  those  who  have  been  much  prayed 
for.  Oh,  remember  their  mothers.  Remember  their  fathers.  Remember 
self-sacrificing  sisters  that  toil  and  labor  to  sustain  brothers  far  away. 
Remember  those  who,  having  been  brought  up  in  homes  of  purity,  are  now 
without  home,  exiled,  struggling  for  life,  amid  the  bewilderments  and  tempta- 
tions of  this  great  city.  God,  take  care  of  the  young,  and  help  them.  O  Lord 
Jesus,  inspire  them  to  look  unto  their  fathers'  God,  the  God  of  their  youth, 
the  God  of  all  love  and  all  helpfulness.  And  so  may  they  live  that  this  life 
shall  be  a  victory.  And  by  it  may  they  achieve  an  entrance  into  that  life 
which  is  to  come— into  the  heavenly  land.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amen. 


XX. 

The  Heaet-Power  of  the  Gospel. 


THE  HEAET-POWER  OF  THE  GOSPEL 


"  For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ :  for  it  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth  ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also 
to  the  Greek.— Rom.  1. 16. 


That  also  is  extremely  bold.  It  required  no  small  measure  of 
courage  at  that  time,  and  under  those  circumstances,  and  in  the 
speaker,  to  have  dared  to  say  that,  simple  as  it  is  now.  There  was  a 
time  when  to  have  said,  before  a  Hebrew  audience,  that  the  Gentiles 
were  to  have  the  same  privileges  as  the  Jews,  would  have  brought 
down  on  one's  head  a  shower  of  stones.  The  near  approach  which 
the  apostle  makes  to  this  thought  in  many  of  his  epistles  indicates 
the  state  of  feeling  which  existed  in  the  olden  time.  "VVe  make 
nothing,  now,  of  the  fact  that  the  Gospel  is  meant  for  the  whole 
world  ;  but  there  was  a  time  when  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  of  Jehovah  was  supposed  to  be  in  such  a  sense  Jewish,  that,  if 
any  other  nation  had  a  share  of  it,  it  Avas  stolen.  The  Jews  regarded 
it  as  their  property.  Jehovah  was  a  national  God,  in  their  estima- 
tion. And  to  affirm  that  any  other  nation  had  privileges  equal  to 
theirs  was  an  assault  upon  their  pride,  and  upon  their  whole  national 
feeling.     Thus  in  writing  to  the  Ephesians,  the  apostle  says, 

*'  For  this  cause  I  Paul,  the  prisoner  of  Jesus  Christ  for  you  Gentiles 
[on  your  account],  if  ye  have  heard  of  the  dispensation  of  the  grace  of  God 
which  is  given  me  to  you-ward :  how  that  by  revelation  he  made  known 
unto  me  the  mystery  [the  hidden  thing,  the  secret],  which  in  other  ages 
was  not  made  known  iinto  the  sons  of  men,  as  it  is  now  revealed  unto  hia 
holy  apostles  and  prophets  by  the  Spirit." 

Wliat,  then,  is  that  prodigious  "  mystery"  that  has  been  hidden 
so  long,  and  that  now,  with  such  wonderful  disclosure,  is  about  to  be 
revealed  ?  "  That  the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs,  and  of  the 
same  body,  and  partakers  of  his  promise  in  Christ  by  the  Gospel." 
"We  almost  laugh  at  the  thought  that  that  should  be  the  issue,  the 
climax,  to  it.  We  are  surprised  that  it  should  be  only  that.  But 
^ah !  at  that  time  it  meant  a  great  deal  more  than  it  does  now.  And 
when  he  said,  "  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to 
the  Greek,"  he  spoke  a  very  bold  thing. 

Sunday  Evening,  June  25,  ISTl.  Lesson  :  Matt.  XIII.  1-17.  Hymns  (Plymouth 
Collection) :  Nos.  725,  696,  "Shiuiug  Shore." 


392  TEE  EEABT-POWEE  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

What,  however,  seems  to  our  minds  the  most  surprising  is  the 
declaration  that  he  was  not  ashamed  of  this  Gospel,  and  of  Christ. 
Why  should  he  be  ?  What  is  there  that  one  should  be  ashamed  of 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  God,  and  especially  in  that  dispen- 
sation of  mercy  by  which  God  is  revealed  in  Jesus  ?  Is  not  Chris- 
tianity respectable,  the  world  over  ?  Is  it  not  the  supreme  religion  ? 
Does  not  even  skeptical  philosophy  admit  that  it  approaches  more 
nearly  to  the  universal  religion  than  any  other  ?  Is  it  not  esteemed 
of  all  men  ?  Why  should  any  man  be  ashamed  of  it  ?  Sure 
enough,  after  eighteen  hundred  yeai'S  of  growth  and  fruit,  why 
should  any  one  be  ashamed  of  it  ?  But  it  was  very  different  then- 
It  was  an  unknown  thing.  There  are  a  great  many  reasons  why  the 
apostle  may  be  supposed  not  to  have  been  ashamed  of  his  ministry 
and  his  mission,  although  they  to  whom  he  spoke  might  have 
thought  that  he  ought  to  have  been  ashamed  of  them.  But  put  your- 
self in  his  position,  and  see  how  the  whole  world  must  have  seemed 
to  him.  Plant  yourself  in  the  midst  of  those  to  whom  he  came 
preaching  ;  perceive  their  prejudices  ;  accept  their  opinions  ;  stand 
in  the  atmosphere  which  enveloped  him  ;  be  surrounded  by  the 
same  public  sentiment  which  was  around  about  him,  and  see  if  there 
was  not  some  courage  and  some  loftiness  in  his  declaring  that 
he  was  not  ashamed  of  the  part  that  he  was  playing,  nor  of  the 
ministry  that  he  was  serving. 

He  was  a  Jew  himself;  and  I  know  of  nothing  that  so  aptly  ex- 
presses what  the  feeling  in  regard  to  the  J'ew  was,  as  the  statement 
that  he  sustained  very  neai'ly  the  same  relation  to  the  foremost 
people  of  that  time  that  the  negro  has  sustained  to  the  white  people 
in  this  country — a  relation  which  nearly  excluded  him  from 
all  influence,  from  all  standing,  and  from  a  decent  hearing.  The  Jew 
was  detested  then,  as  in  mediaeval  times  he  was  detested.  It  is  only 
within  a  comparatively  brief  period  that  the  Jew  had  any  respect- 
ability or  liberty  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  But  at  that  time 
he  was  particularly  odious  among  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
earth,  almost  without  exception. 

It  would  seem  an  unfortunate  thing  that  a  new  religion  should 
be  pioneered  by  a  man  who  was  a  detested  Jew,  than  whom  one 
could  scarcely  have  been  selected  in  all  the  world  less  likely  to  suc- 
ceed. 

Then,  add  to  this  the  fact  that  Paul,  by  his  own  account,  had 
no  graces  of  person ;  that  he  had  not  oratory ;  that  he  had  none  of 
the  skill  of  philosophy  and  casuistry  and  persuasiveness.  He  was  a 
Jew;  and  besides  that  he  was  not  personally  impressive.  This 
would  seem  to  render  him  an  object,  if  of  notice  at  all,  of  contempt- 
Tious  notice. 


TEE  HEABT-FOWEB  OF  TEE  GOSFEL.  393 

And  then,  whom  did  this  Jew  come  to  make  known  ?  Not  him- 
self, surely.  Nothing  so  vile  and  so  unacceptable  as  liimself.  Some- 
thing precious  and  desirable,  evidently.  No :  he  brought  tidings  of  a 
malefactor  !  He  bore  knowledge  of  one  who  was  regarded  as  too  vile 
to  be  tolerated.  It  might  be  declared  that  he  was  not  a  malefactor ; 
but  the  fact  was  admitted,  by  his  own  countrymen,  tliat  he  had  been 
crucified — and  crucifixion  was  the  penalty  reserved  for  the  most 
odious  criminals — as  disgraceful  as  the  gallows-death  in  our  day. 

Paul  was  going  out  into  all  the  world,  and  this  was  what  he 
was  carrying  to  the  people  :  "  You  must  believe  on  this  crucified 
convict."  It  was  a  strange  message,  and  you  see  how  significant  it 
was,  when  Paul  pitched  the  battle  on  that  point,  and  said, 

"  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Je.^us  Christ  [not 
Christ  as  he  appeared  in  his  glory  ;  not  Christ  as  he  was  to  appear  when  he 
should  come  the  second  time,  in  the  kingdom  of  his  Father's  glory]  and  him 
CTUoified.'' 

On  tliat  Jew,  that  convict,  that  odious,  crucified  man,  Paul 
planted  himself,  a'ld  determined  to  make  the  strength  of  his  ministry 
rest  there.  He  presented  Christ  in  those  aspects  in  whicli  he  would 
be  most  likely  to  be  rejected  of  men.     It  was  a  bold  presentation. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  apostle  went  forth  to  the 
Greeks  and  to  the  Romans,  both  of  whom  were  very  proud  nations, 
and  both  of  whom,  in  turn,  had  been  conquerors  of  the  province  ;  and 
that  therefore  he  brought  this  odious  message,  himself  odious,  to 
haughty  and  supercilious  listeners.  The  Greek  had  had  his  turn 
and  overrun  the  land,  and  beaten  down  all  opposition,  and  governed 
the  Jews,  first  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  afterwards  with  philosophy, 
despising  them  because  they  had  no  philosophy.  They  were  without 
art.  Painting  and  statuary  were  unknown  among  them  ;  and  archi- 
tecture was  but  very  little  known  among  them.  With  the  exception 
of  the  single  instance  of  the  Temple,  almost  all  the  remains  of 
architecture  in  their  cities  are  Greek,  and  sprang  from  the  hands  of 
their  conquerors.  Rome  succeeded  the  Greeks  in  holding  power  in 
the  province,  and  had  her  turn  of  triumph  ;  and  she  looked  upon 
this  nation  as  she  did  upon  others  that  she  had  subdued.  Not  only 
that,  she  looked  upon  them  as  a  nation  of  stiff-necked  and  hot-headed 
fanatics.     And  they  were  remorselessly  dealt  with. 

Therefore,  when  Paul  went  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel,  he  had 
to  preach  it  to  those  lofty,  proud,  conquering  nations ;  and  there 
Bjemed  very  little  likelihood  that  he  would  have  a  hearing  in  their 
presence.  The  theme  was  one  which  had  in  it  no  fascinating  ele- 
ments, so  far  as  the  carnal  sense  of  man  is-  concerned.  It  was  not 
even  Judaism,  which  had  a  temple,  and  an  altar,  and  a  ritual,  and 
glorious  chants,  and  grand  popular  festivals.     In  Judaism  there 


394  THE  EEABT-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

were  more  or  less  of  exhibitory  services.  There  was  something  in 
it  for  the  eyes  to  rest  on.  It  was  largely  made  up  of  symbolism,  and 
was  not  altogether  without  fascination.  But  Paul  did  not  go  to 
preach  Judaism.  He  dispossessed  himself  of  it  as  fast  as  he  could. 
He  disregarded  it,  saying,  "  Circumcision  is  nothing."  And  yet 
that  was  the  foundation  of  the  whole  Levitical  economy.  He  had 
nothing  to  present  to  the  love  of  beauty.  There  is  no  sesthetical 
element  in  Christianity  ;  but  there  is  a  moral  element  in  it.  I  do 
not  remember  any  stroke  of  what  might  be  called  art,  or  any  re- 
lation to  it,  in  the  teaching  of  our  Saviour.  While  he  used  nature, 
he  never  used  it  from  a  sense  of  beauty,  but  always  for  a  moral 
purpose.  The  old  Hebrew  prophets  made  use  of  natui-e.  They 
felt  that  it  was  grand  and  sublime.  No  figures  will  surpass  those 
which  come  from  nature.  But  our  Saviour's  teachings  were  more 
like  the  Proverbs  than  like  the  writings  of  the  Prophets.  There 
was  then  no  sense  of  beauty  in  the  Jewish  mind,  to  which  an  appeal 
could  be  made,  and  nothing  to  satisfy  that  side  of  the  mind.  When 
the  apostle  came  to  the  Gentile  world,  he  came  to  call  upon  men  to 
believe  in  an  obscure  person  raised  to  conspicu.ity  for  some  reason 
or  other,  and  put  to  a  shameful  death.  And  what  was  there  in  that, 
which  was  calculated  to  contribute  to  their  comfort  or  joy  ?  He 
preached  of  &ne  who  said,  "  Come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest ;  but  it  will  be  by  taking  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  bearing  my 
burdens.  Can  ye  drink  of  the  cup  that  I  shall  drink  of,  and  be 
baptized  with  the  baptism  that  I  shall  be  baptized  withal  ?"  When 
the  apostle  went  out  to  preach  Christ,  no  shining  way  was  presented 
to  men.  On  the  contrary,  there  were  in  store  for  them  reproach, 
separation  from  brethren  and  households,  and  even  expatriation,  and 
persecution,  and  bondage,  and  sorrow,  and  distress,  if  they  accepted 
this  obscure  personage  as  their  Lord  and  Saviour. 

Now,  standing  among  such  a  people,  to  deliver  such  a  message, 
I  do  not  wonder  that  the  apostle  felt  that  he  must  take  issue  with 
them.  They  would  be  likely  to  suppose  that  the  cause  which  he 
advocated  was  very  weak.  The  seeming  was  that  it  was  an  imag- 
inary thing,  and  that  he  was  fanatical.  Such  would  be  the  impres- 
sion jjroduced  by  his  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  to  the  great  Gen- 
tile world.  He  therefore  took  issue  with  that  very  point,  and  said, 
"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;"  as  if  somebody  had 
been  trying  to  shame  him.  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  it,  on  that  very 
ground  on  which  you  think  I  should  be  ashamed.  I  am  not  ashamed 
of  it  on  account  of  its  power  over  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  soul  of 
men.  To  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the 
Greek,  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.     It  is  the  righieous- 


THE  HEAET-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  395 

ness  of  God  revealed  from  faith  to  faith.  And  this  inherent  spirit- 
ual power  has  redemption  in  it." 

What,  then,  are  some  of  those  elements  which  we  may  suppose 
the  apostle  found  in  the  Gospel  which  he  preached,  and  which 
gave  him  joy  rather  than  shame  in  proclaiming  it  ?  In  all  the 
instructions  of  the  Saviour,  in  the  whole  Gospel,  which  includes 
his  life  and  teachings,  there  is  to  me  a  predominant  sense  of  tho 
great  world  beyond.  Nowhere  else  is  there  such  an  atmosphere  of 
the  infinite  spirit-realm  that  lies  just  outside  of  the  border  of 
this  world,  as  in  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour.  And  the  apostle  ac- 
cepted it  as  a  thing  to  be  believed.  He  pointed  forward  to  it  as  a 
fact  relating  to  the  great  after-life.  And  the  Greek  was  drawn  to- 
ward it  by  hope,  by  faith,  by  love,  by  arguments,  by  motives,  by 
persuasions.  Immortality  was  no  longer  a  plant  that  grew  a  few 
years  on  earth,  and  then  returned  no  one  knew  whither.  Under  the 
teaching  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  man  at  once  had  an  outgrowth  and 
an  immortality  which  raised  him  incalculably  in  the  scale  of  being. 
The  conception  of  man  as  a  creature  of  this  world,  is,  and  must  be, 
entirely  different  from  a  conception  of  him  as  a  creature  of  eternity. 
If  man  is  born  to  live  threescore  years  and  ten,  and  then  die,  in 
what  respect  is  he  better  than  the  leaves  of  a  tree,  that  flourish 
through  their  summer,  and  then  drop  and  return  to  the  earth  ?  If  man 
has  his  whole  life  here,  and  there  is  no  hereafter,  what  are  the  rights  of 
the  weak  and  of  the  poor  ?  The  almost  inevitable  and  irresistible  effect 
of  believing  that  men's  life  begins  and  ends  in  this  world,  and  that 
they  have  no  life  hereafter,  is  to  give  power  to  those  that  are  strong, 
and  to  make  the  strong  unmerciful  toward  the  weak.  If  it  were 
believed  that  human  life  was  limited  to  this  world,  men  would  say, 
"  What  is  the  difference  between  an  intelligent  being  and  the  horse 
that  we  do  not  believe  has  any  life  beyond  this  world,  and  that  we 
task  and  kill,  getting  the  most  we  can  out  of  him,  because  we  believe 
his  existence  ends  here  ?"  If  it  is  supposed  that  men  have  no  more 
life  than  the  beast,  then  the  poor  and  needy  will  be  trodden  down 
as  trash,  and  nobody  will  care  for  them,  and  death  will  be  the  save- 
all  and  the  cover-all,  so  far  as  they  are  concerned. 

When,  therefore,  Christ  came  to  teach  that  the  poor  were  im- 
mortal ;  that  the  poorest  and  meanest  had  a  chance  for  life  beyond 
this  world,  he  raised  men  to  a  dignity  and  importance  which  had 
not  before  been  regarded  as  belonging  to  them. 

What  seeds  do  in  this  world,  depends  upon  what  their  summer 
is,  and  whether  they  have  power  to  go  through  the  winter,  and  grow 
again.  Some  things — deciduous  plants — can  grow  but  for  one  sum- 
mer.    Other  things — such  as  the  hollyhock — grow  for  two  summers, 


396  THE  HEABT-POWEB  OF  THE  OOSFEL. 

and  become  larger  uiid  more  stately.  But  those  things  which  have 
a  permanent  value — trees,  such  as  the  century-defying  oak,  out  of 
which  we  construct  our  dwellings,  out  of  which  our  men-of-war  are 
built,  and  which  have  enduring  strength — grow  on,  season  after  sea- 
son, and  through  successive  cycles. 

Now,  if  man  perishes,  he  is  as  the  grass  indeed  ;  but  if  he  lives 
hereafter,  beyond  this  world,  who  shall  measure  what  he  shall  be? 
If  here  you  take  a  poor,  obscure  man,  ignorant,  and  full  of  prej- 
udices and  superstition — a  barbarian,  a  miserable  slave — and  meas- 
ure him,  what  is  he  to  society  ?  Almost  a  wart,  and  nothing  else. 
What  is  he  worth  to  civilization  ?  He  is  scarcely  a  filling-up  in  life. 
What  is  he  worth  ?  Just  about  as  much  as  his  hoe  is.  His  value 
is  measured  by  his  power  to  create ;  by  the  skill  that  is  in  his  hand. 
What  sign  is  there  of  an  ideal  of  beauty  in  his  soul  ?  What  in- 
signia are  there  which  mark  him  as  superior  to  the  lower  animals  ? 
What  can  he  do,  poor,  ignorant,  untaught,  and  undeveloped  as  he  is  ? 

But  ah !  if  that  soul  is  going  to  have  a  chance  to  unfold ;  if, 
being  temporarily  planted  here,  it  is  to  be  transferred  to  a  region 
where  it  will  have  a  chance  to  develop  the  immortal  that  is  in  it ; 
if  by  and  by  it  shall  be  transplanted  to  a  better  clime  and  a  fairer 
soil,  where  it  shall  have  a  nobler  opportunity  for  growth,  who  can 
tell  into  what  magnificent  proportions  that  earth-neglected  but 
heaven-protected  spirit  shall  spring  ?  Who  can  estimate  the  value 
of  that  nature  which  is  to  go  on  unfolding  forever  and  forever  ?  It 
is  out  of  the  infinite  possibilities  of  this  future  immortality  which 
promises  all  things  and  projects  all  things  for  the  least  and  the  poor- 
est, that  men  draw  installments  of  honor  and  dignity  here. 

See  the  mother  sitting  by  the  cradle,  and  singing  to  the  child. 
He  is  her  hero.  Forelooking,  she  sees  him  as  a  boy  ten  or  twelve 
years  of  age,  sprightly  and  comely  and  beautiful.  She  sees  him  as 
a  youth,  gay  and  fair,  blossoming  and  breaking  out  into  life.  She 
sees  him  issuing  into  young  manhood.  She  foresees  the  time  when 
his  stalwart  form  shall  support  her  in  the  feebleness  of  age,  and  as 
she  approaches  the  grave.  She  sees  him,  also,  in  mature  manhood, 
and  in  his  declining  years.     He  is  her  hope  and  pride. 

In  the  midst  of  her  reveries  the  child  wakes  up ;  and  it  cries,  as 
an  animal  would  cry.  It  is  helplessness  itself.  It  does  not  even 
know  its  mother.  It  cannot  lift  its  hands  intelligently  to  its  face. 
There  is  nothing  of  it.  It  is  a  little  mass  of  jelly  and  bone.  Is 
there  anything  so  insignificant  as  a  new-born  babe  ?  And  yet,  does 
not  the  mother  see  all  its  manhood?  Is  there  not  over  that  cradle 
a  glory  that  ia  borrowed  'ram  the  possibiliUe-   '  f  coming  ye^vrs  2 


THE  HEABT-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  397 

And  is  not  the  mother  right  ?  He  is  a  hero.  She  has  the  faith  to 
discern  the  future  of  his  life. 

And  oh,  what  grandeur  there  is  in  men,  to  one  who  has  faith  to 
believe  that  they  shall  never  die  !  A  man  may  be  poor  for  society, 
poor  for  the  household,  and  poorest  of  all  for  himself  in  this  life — for 
if  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope,  toe  are  of  all  men  most  miserable. 
But  oh,  to  have  light  and  immortality  brought  to  light  as  a  measure 
by  which  to  judge  of  men ;  to  have  diffused  a  knowledge  of  the 
world  beyond ;  to  have  opened  the  crystal  door  of.  the  future ;  to 
have  let  in  a  light  which  should  change  all  the  aspects  of  tbings, 
and  reveal  the  glories  of  the  world  to  come — this  is  not  a  small 
thing.  And  you  shall  find  that  where  there  is  most  intelligent  and 
righteous  and  permanent  liberty,  it  is  the  result  of  the  inspiration 
of  those  views  of  immortality  which  came  from  Christ  Jesus,  which 
have  blest  mankind  through  ages,  and  which  will  go  on  blessing 
them  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  intensity  of  the  divine  desire  for  the  emergence  of  men 
from  the  lower  states  in  which  they  are  born  in  this  world  into 
higher  spiritual  conditions,  is  prominently  developed  in  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  All  through  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour  I  discern  sym- 
pathy for  men,  not  exactly  because  they  are  sinful,  but  because 
they  are  crude,  undeveloped,  ignorant,  untaught ;  because  they 
are  sufferers,  and  are  destined  to  greater  suffering  if  they  could  not 
be  rescued.  I  perceive  in  the  teaching  and  character  and  earthly 
life  of  Christ,  that  his  soul  was  attempting  to  draw  men  up  from  the 
beggarl}'^  bondage  of  their  fleshly  condition  into  the  freedom  and  to 
the  glory  of  a  truly  spiritual  life.  It  was  as  if  they  were  animals  in 
whom  manhood  had  begun  to  be  developed.  It  was  as  if  the  heart 
of  God  was  pouring  down  light  and  warmth  upon  them.  As  the 
sun  shines  on  homely  roots,  so  God  shone  on  men.  And  then  came 
the  development  of  the  Spirit,  to  the  divine  nature  that  was  in  them. 

This  was  not  altogether  new.  There  had  been  schemes  of  some- 
thing like  this  in  other  faiths  and  religions — for  there  are  some  ele- 
ments of  truth  in  all  forms  of  belief;  but  nowhere  else  had  there 
been  such  an  emphasis  given  to  this.  Nowhere  else  was  there  ever 
a  heart  that  beat  so  intelligently  and  so  effectually  as  the  heart  of 
Christ  standing  in  the  place  of  God  to  men,  and  bearing  witness  to 
the  divine  desire  that  men  should  be  inspired,  lifted  up,  redeemed, 
enfranchised,  ennobled,  and  made  sons  of  God.  What  a  view  of 
God  does  this  render  to  us  !  What  a  view  must  it  have  rendered 
to  those  >vho  wen*  accustomed  to  look  at  him  with  the  eyes  of  an- 
tiquity I  Listen  to  the  description  of  God  which  is  given  in  the  next 
chapter • 


398  THE  REAllT-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

"Dtspiseth  thou  the  riches  of  his  goodness  and  forbearance  and  long- 
BuflPering;  not  knowing  that  the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repent- 
ance ?" 

How  sublime  a  view  was  this  of  the  moral  development  of  the 
Avorld,  and  of  a  God  that  nurses  the  world  with  love  !  The  magis- 
terial and  despotic  view  of  God  is  one  side.  But  there  is  another 
side.  There  had  been  a  presentation  of  God  as  wise  and  just,  ad- 
dressed to  the  forceful  nature  of  men  ;  but  the  view  of  a  God  of  in- 
finite love,  guided  by  his  wisdom,  opening  for  the  whole  race  a  door  of 
escape  from  the  physical  reality  into  the  region  of  spirituality — this 
certainly  was  a  new  presentation  of  the  great  central  force  of  the  uni- 
verse, not  as  a  blind  fate,  not  as  a  crushing  destroyer,  not  as  a 
subtle  Machiavelian  God,  issuing  his  decrees,  but  as  a  Mother-God, 
a  Father-God,  a  Brother-God,  a  nourishing  God,  that  brings  up  his 
creatures  in  love. 

This  was  the  presentation  of  God  which  the  Gospel  contained  ; 
and  the  test  of  his  love  to  men  was,  not  that  he  never  caused  them 
pain.  Suffering  is  often  a  test  of  love.  Our  love  to  others  is  not 
measured  by  how  glad  it  makes  them  feel.  It  is  not  bursts,  im- 
petuosities of  feeling,  but  its  continuity,  the  length  of  time  that  it 
Avill  continue  to  exist  when  once  it  is  set  in  operation,  that  tests  its 
value.  Earthly  feelings  are  like  rockets  that  go  blazing  into  the  sky, 
but  very  soon  fall,  drawn  by  fatal  attraction,  to  the  earth ;  and  how 
long  before  it  is  extinguished,  how  long  it  will  bear  pressure,  how 
long  it  will  endure  suffering,  how  disinterested  it  is,  how  much  it 
will  give — that  is  the  test  of  human  love ;  and  human  love  is  iound 
to  be  very  imperfect  when  measured  by  that  test. 

But  was  there  ever  love  like  that  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  Was 
there  ever  anything  which  so  filled  the  measure  of  disinterested  love 
as  that  of  Christ  Jesus  for  his  enemies  ?  Was  there  ever  a  more 
sublime  exhibition  of  love  than  that  which  he  manifested  when, 
banging  upon  the  cross,  he  prayed  for  his  crucifiers,  saying,  "  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do"  ? 

The  personality  of  God  ;  the  sympathy  of  God  for  mankind  ;  the 
reduction  of  God  to  those  conditions  of  humanity  in  which  we  can 
interpret  the  divine  nature,  and  understand  that  divinity  consists, 
not  in  magnitude,  not  in  power,  not  in  force,  but  in  disposition,  and 
that  love  is  the  center  of  that  disposition — this  is  transcendent.  It 
is  the  secret  of  the  power  of  the  Gospel  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  universe  is  now  revealed  to  be  a  household.  We  know  what 
a  household  is ;  but  when  we  say  the  universe  is  a  household,  we  do 
not  mean  that  it  is  such  a  one  as  ours  is.  Yet  to  us  there  is  no 
place  BO  sweet  as  home.  There  is  nothing  that  touches  so  many 
hearts,  and  touches  them  so  sweetly,  as  the  thought  of  home — a 


TUB  HEABT-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  399 

thought  that  is  selected  as  the  symbol  or  sign  of  the  divine  purpose 
in  regard  to  the  race.  And  the  universe  being  a  household,  we  are 
tauglit  to  draw  near  to  Jesus  in  all  the  universe,  and  say,  "  Our 
Father."  When  I  do  this,  I  am  knocking  at  the  door  of  ray  Father's 
house.  And  when  I  have  found  Christ  I  have  found  him  who  is 
my  Father. 

How  different  is  this  view  from  the  ancient  conception,  or  from 
that  modern  conception  which  men  are  so  desperately  disposed  to 
rush  into !    What  can  be  more  comforting  than  the  thouglit  that  all 
mankind  are  a  family,  and  that  God  is  large  enough  and  wise  enough 
to  govern  by  his  personality  ?  Men  are  not,  and  therefore  they  have 
a  clumsy  machinery  of  laws.     No  magistrate  can  govern  by  his  per- 
sonality.    No  man  can  be  trusted  to  do  it.     Men's  nobler  impulses 
are  so  blended  with  their  lower  passions  that  their  judgment  is  not 
a  safe  guide ;  and  so,  not  because  it  is  the  best  thing,  but  because  it 
is  the  best  thing  that  we  in  our  imperfect  condition  can  attain  to 
we   resort  to  constitutions  and  laws.     Constitutions  and  laws  are 
means  which  are  employed  for  bolstering  the  weakness  of  the  men 
that  stand  behind  them  to  administer  them.     But  God  stands  above 
all  these  things.     He  governs,  not  by  laws  nor  by  constitutions,  but 
by  his  mind  and  heart,  saying,  "  I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I  will 
have  mercy.     I  am  not  tied.     I  stand  in  my  own  jjersonality.     I  am 
free  to  feel  sympathy  and  affection  whenever  and  wherever  I  Avill." 
God  is  perfectly  wise  and  just,  and  true  and  unerring,  and  therefore 
he  can  act  without  restraint.     The  conception  revealed  in  Christ,  of 
the  Eternal  Father,  of  the  governing  God,  is  that  he  is  one  who 
stands  in  the  plenitude  of  his  being,  administering  in  heaven  and 
earth  by  the  power  of  his  own  regnant  heart,  and  not  from  the  blind 
impulse  of  law  ;  from  the  liberty  that  inheres  in  his  own  nature,  and 
not  from  any  coercion  outside  of  himself.     How  grand  is  the  con- 
ception of  such  a  God,  with  such  a  power  and  such  a  purpose,  ad- 
ministering throughout  the  universe! 

But  there  is  no  attribute  of  God  so  wonderful  as  his  patience. 
There  is  nothing  so  marvelous  in  the  divine  nature  as  God's  long- 
suffering.  We  cannot  bear  to  contemplate  the  atrocious  wickedness 
which  we  see  around  about  us.  We  are  repelled  in  a  moment  from 
things  which  seem  to  us  so  flagitious.  Oh,  what  a  smoke  has  gone 
up  from  the  corruptions  of  this  world!  What  hideous  cruelties 
there  have  been  !  What  wrestlings  of  animal  with  animal !  What 
rage  and  fury !  What  lust  and  crime !  But  God  has  patiently 
borne  it  all.  And  he  has  waited,  and  still  waits,  for  the  develop- 
ment and  purification  of  the  race.     The  ages  have  rolled  by,  and 


400  TEU  EEAET-POWEB  OF  TEE  GOSPEL. 

thus  far  the  earth  has  borne  little  fruit ;  but  it  is  like  an  orchard 
filled  with  trees  that  shall  bear  abundant  and  glorious  fruit  in  the 
ages  that  are  to  come  ;  and  God  has  waited,  and  is  waiting,  and  will 
wait  to  the  end.  God  is  glorious  as  a  God  of  love  and  mercy ;  but 
he  is  more  glorious  as  a  God  of  infinite  long-suflfering  and  patience. 

When  we  come  to  have  these  thoughts  of  the  divine  nature 
brought  out,  we  see  that  there  was  good  reason  why  the  apostle 
should  say,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  such  a  God  nor  of  such  a  Gospel. 
That  is  the  message  which  I  dare  to  stand  before  any  heathen  temple 
and  proclaim." 

To  be  sure,  heathenism  had  a  great  advantage  over  the  Gospel. 
All  that  art  could  do  had  been  done  to  redeem  heathenism  from 
vulgarity,  and  cover  up  its  deformities,  and  make  it  beautiful  to  the 
eye ;  and  Paul  had  only  this  sj^iritual  or  ideal  conception  of  God  to 
present.  But  where  it  found  a  lodgment  it  led  to  most  astonishing 
results.  Where  it  was  preached  to  the  poor  and  needy,  it  inspired 
them  with  great  hope  and  confidence.  Where  it  was  brought  home 
to  the  guilty,  it  awakened  in  them  such  a  sense  of  their  guilt  and 
of  God's  grace  in  their  forgiveness,  that  they  were  inspired  with 
purposes  to  live  holy  lives,  and  began  to  live  such  lives.  And  in 
the  midst  of  those  lives  more  and  more  of  the  light  of  truth  dawned 
upon  them. 

There  is  no  description  that  can  fitly  represent  the  sensations  of 
the  men  to  whom  the  Gospel  came.  All  they  could  say  was,  "  I 
was  dead,  but  am  alive ;  I  was  lost,  but  am  found ;  I  was  in  prison, 
but  am  released.  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am.  He  is  my 
Friend,  my  Lover,  my  Saviour,  my  Father."  Their  souls  were  so 
awakened,  their  manhood  was  developed  to  such  pro^iortions,  they 
manifested  such  hidden  power,  they  had  such  faith  and  courage,  and 
their  experience  was  such,  that  they  were  transformed. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  blessed  truth,  the  household  was  rev- 
olutionized, and  Christianity  gradually  established  itself  in  the  earth. 
It  never  established  itself  by  symbols  and  rituals  of  worship.  These 
came  after  its  decadence  began.  The  beginnings  of  Christianity 
had  for  their  foundation  the  power  of  Christ  brought  into  the 
individual  soul.  When  once  men  had  been  convicted  of  their  sins, 
and  Christ  had  been  presented  to  them  as  their  Saviour,  and  they 
apprehended  him,  and  his  Spirit  had  entered  into  them,  they  became 
so  sweet,  there  was  such  nobleness  in  their  disposition  and  purpose, 
that  they  were  capable  both  of  forbearance  and  achievement.  They 
had  those  qualities  of  manhood  which  were  exceedingly  rare,  and 
which  were  never  inspired  by  the  cunning  philosophy  of  the  stoics. 


TEE  EEAET-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  401 

Men  of  no  learning,  no  culture,  were  found  springing  up  into  moral 
sublimity.  There  grew  up  in  every  city  bodies  of  men  on  whom  the 
Spirit  of  God  had  descended,  and  who  exhibited  all  those  traits 
which  it  is  the  nature  and  design  of  Christianity  to  develop.  There 
is  abundant  testimony  of  the  triumph  of  noble  qualities  in  the  lives 
of  the  early  Christians.  No  man  can  read  the  Epistles  of  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  and  not  see  that  the  power  which  he  exerted  was  that  of 
regenerated  character,  a  spiritualized  disposition,  and  a  new  manhood 
in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  that  power  which  comes  when  God's  influence 
is  felt  in  the  human  soul.  Then  manhood  takes  unexpected  devel- 
opment. Then  come,  with  grand  disclosure,  those  things  which  men 
vainly  seek  for  in  other  ways.  They  blossom  profusely,  and  reap- 
pear as  fast  as  plucked.  And  so  it  was  this  spectacle  of  what  the 
Gospel  does  to  the  heart  of  man  that  filled  the  Apostle  with  joy  and 
confidence. 

No  man  has  ever  preached  the  Gospel  who  has  not  felt  that  so 
long  as  he  looked  at  it  as  a  mere  speculation  it  was  full  of  loop-holes ; 
that  there  were  many  things  in  it  which  seemed  contradictory  and 
inexplicable.  If  I  had  reliance  only  upon  pure  intellection,  I  should 
be  as  a  reed  shaken  in  the  wind.  But  I  never  try  to  put  myself  in 
the  attitude  of  God  toward  a  human  being,  I  never  have  my  heart 
alive  Avith  glowing  sympathy  toward  a  fellow-creature,  I  never  feel 
my  soul  moved  with  an  earnest  desire  to  benefit  another,  that  I  have 
not  an  intuition,  a  certainty,  of  the  existence  of  God  and  of  his 
Fatherhood,  which  cannot  come  through  any  process  of  the  intellect. 
God  discloses  himself,  not  through  the  intellect,  but  throuo-h  the 
heart ;  he  is  revealed  to  us  through  our  own  likeness  to  him.  And  it 
is  by  this  revelation  that  we  are  able  to  make  known  the  lost  con- 
dition of  men,  and  the  undeveloped  power  in  them  of  recuperation  • 
that  we  are  all  able  to  stand  before  men  and  say,  "  The  law  is  that 
he  that  sinneth  shall  suffer  in  proportion  to  the  sin,  or  shall  die  •  that 
if  the  sin  passes  a  given  line,  or  goes  beyond  a  certain  magnitude 
there  is  no  drawing  back,  and  no  medicine  or  surgeon  that  can  keep 
the  sinner  from  suffering  the  penalty."  But  I  stand  and  look  that 
economy  in  the  face,  and  say,  in  respect  to  all  mental  and  moral 
transgression,  that  while  it  is  true  that  the  soul  that  persistently  sins 
shall  die,  while  there  is  a  law  that  rolls  men  on  and  down  to  destruc- 
tion if  they  do  not  turn  back,  yet  the  soul  that  sins  mai/  live.  Tho 
Lord  God  hath  declared  it.  And  while  material  nature  stands  say- 
ing, "  Y< -1  sliall  siiffer  the  consequences  of  your  trans'^-ression  "  the 
heart  of  God  stands  and  says,  "  I  would  not  have  you  die.  Why 
will  you  die?  In  me  is  your  help  and  your  life."  The  liiglier  nature 
the  truest  part  of  nature,  tlie  subtle,  ineffable  blossom  of  uaturc,  is 


402  THE  HEABT-POWEB  OF  TEE  GOSPEL, 

that  which  the  soul  knows  about,  and  the  body  does  not.  Away, 
chemistry  !  What  do  you  know  about  nature  ?  You  take  the  shuck, 
and  analyze  that ;  but  you  know  nothing  of  what  the  shuck  contains. 
You  have  examined  the  dirt  out  of  which  the  plant  grows ;  but  you 
are  ignorant  of  the  blossom  in  the  topmost  bough.  This  is  made 
known  only  through  a  knowledge  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  a 
truth  of  the  Gospel  that  there  is  remedy  for  sin,  and  salvation  for 
the  sinner ;  that  as  soon  as  we  are  touched  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  we 
have  power  to  rise  superior  to  transgression ;  that  then  all  the  j^ast 
is  changed,  and  all  the  future  is  guaranteed.  And  when  I  make 
known  this  Gospel,  if  I  am  ever  ashamed,  it  is  of  the  intellectual 
propositions  in  which  men  try  to  clothe  these  high  sjjiritual 
truths.  If  I  am  ever  shaken  in  my  faith,  it  is  on  the  side  of  meta- 
physics and  philosophy.  I  am  never  ashamed  nor  faithless  when 
I  make  a  practical  use  of  the  truth  as  it  is  revealed  in  Christ.  I 
never  undertook  to  comfort  one  that  was  in  distress ;  I  never  at- 
tempted to  encourage  one  that  wanted  to  do  well,  and  did  not  know 
how ;  I  never  tried  to  act  toward  men  as  God  acts  toward  them, 
that  I  had  a  doubt,  and  that  I  did  not  feel  and  know  that  I  had 
touched  the  marrow  of  the  Gospel.  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed 
and  trusted.  I  know  that  the  truth  of  God  is  a  truth  of  love,  of 
mercy,  of  recuperation,  of  a  new  life,  of  a  life  kindled  in  the  soul. 
The  marriage  of  the  soul  to  Christ-  -that  is  the  disclosure  of  the  Gos- 
pel. And  this  blessed  Gospel  Paul  was  not  ashamed  of.  Certainly, 
we  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  of  it  if  he  was  not.  On  the  contrary, 
every  one  of  us  ought  to  be  grateful  for  it. 

It  was  winter.  My  honeysuckle  had  lost  all  its  leaves.  It  was 
barren  and  odorless.  But  there  came  from  the  far  south  the  warm 
and  reviving  sun,  and  called  and  called  to  the  honeysuckle,  and 
awaked  its  life.  And  it  began  to  hold  out  its  hands  to  the  sup.  And 
no  sooner  did  the  renewed  sap  begin  to  flow  through  its  vines,  than 
they  began  to  exhale  fragrance  and  thanksgiving  to  the  sun  that 
brought  out  their  blossoms. 

And  shall  you,  planted  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  have  the  blessed 
hope  and  sweet  conviction  that  you  are  disenthralled  from  a  thou- 
sand dangers,  and  hear  your  Heavenly  Father's  voice  calling  you  by 
precious  names  of  love  and  honor,  without  expressing  as  much  grat- 
itude as  the  vines  that  never  forget  to  blossom  in  beauty  and  give 
thanks  in  fragrance  ?  Shall  God  do  for  you  what  he  has  been  doing, 
and  have  no  requital  ?  Shall  you  enjoy  the  bounty  and  experience, 
the  benefit  of  God's  love,  and  then  hide  your  light  under  a  bushel 
and  not  let  brother  or  sister  know  that  you  are  in  Christ  ?  That 
name  should  be  to  you  as  the  sound  of  music.     Sing  it.     Speak  it. 


TEE  EEABT-FOWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL,  403 

Proclaim  it.  Lift  up  your  voice  as  a  trumpet,  and  let  men  know  in 
whom  you  hope,  and  why  you  believe  you  shall  triumph  over  death, 
and  fly  above  the  world,  and  never  touch  its  smoke,  until  you  land 
in  the  realm  of  glory. 

Many  of  you  can  testify  that  this  power  is  not  wanting  yet.  You 
are  yourselves  witnesses  of  the  living  power  of  God  in  Christ.  And 
60  long  as  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  shall  make  men  over 
again,  and  reform  society,  and  heal  its  wounds,  and  cleanse  its  sores ; 
so  long  as  it  shall  be  able  to  set  men  free  from  temptations  and  en- 
able them  to  cultivate  sweet  affections  and  glorious  sentiments — so 
long  none  of  us  need  be  ashamed  of  it. 

Therefore  teach  the  Gospel.  Make  it  known  to  your  children. 
Let  it  be  the  lullaby  from  which  the  child  learns  tidings  of  God  and 
of  Christ.  Let  it  be  your  theme  in  the  household.  Blend  the  love 
of  the  Father  in  heaven  with  the  love  of  the  father  upon  earth.  As 
the  child  learns  early  to  love  his  earthly  parents,  let  there  be  an  ex- 
tension of  his  love,  so  that  it  shall  love  the  Lord  who  gave  himself 
for  even  the  least  of  the  little  ones,  to  redeem  him  from  sin,  and  to 
make  him  glorious  as  a  king  in  the  presence  of  God. 

By  this  grace  and  by  this  glorious  love  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts,  transforming  us,  may  we  all,  from  day  to  day,  and  from  year 
to  year,  be  grandly  proud  and  triumphant,  and  not  ashamed  of  this 
Gospel,  until  we  stand  among  the  shouting  heavenly  throng,  mora 
enthusiastic  than  ever  in  our  rejoicings,  in  view  of  the  salvation 
wrought  by  Jesus  Christ.  And  in  our  joy,  let  us  cast  our  crowns  at 
his  feet,  saying,  "  Not  unto  us,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name,  be 
the  praise  forever  and  forever." 


404  THIi  EEABT'FOWEB  OF  TEE  GOSFEL 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  thank  thee,  our  Father,  for  the  revelation  of  thyself  through  Je8U3 
Christ  our  Lord.  We  bless  thee  that  the  knowledge  of  salvation  through  his 
grace  has  been  brought  to  us,  and  that  so  many  of  us  have  been  inclined  to 
accept  mercy  at  his  hand.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  kindled  in  us  hope, 
and  joy,  and  peace  in  beheving.  We  thank  thee  that  although  we  have  not 
plucked  the  fruits  that  grow  by  the  side  of  the  river  of  life,  yet  we  have  had 
great  joy  and  great  delight  even  in  anticipation,  more  than  springs  from  the 
realization  of  earthly  joy.  We  thank  thee  that  all  the  light  and  air  of  the 
future  falls  upon  our  path,  and  that,  though  for  a  time  it  may  be  hid,  the 
light  comes  again,  and  the  darkness  no  longer  rests  upon  us  as  it  did,  because 
thou  hast  spoken  peace  to  our  souls.  Thou  hast  taught  us  that  we  are  thine. 
Thou  hast  entered  in  to  dwell  with  us.  Thou  hast  been  our  blessed  guest. 
Thou  hast  brought,  universally,  blessings  upon  us,  and  we  are  rich,  since  thou 
hast  been  with  us.  Thou  hast  called  us  by  name.  Thou  hast  known  us  utter- 
ly. We  are  reconciled  to  thee.  Between  thee  and  us  there  is  no  more  fear. 
Would  that  there  were  no  more  disobedience  and  no  more  unbelief  or  doubt. 
Would  that  we  could  always  abide  as  upon  the  top  of  the  mountain,  and  be- 
hold thee  in  thy  glory,  and  rejoice  in  the  testimonies  of  thy  divinity.  And 
yet,  even  when  our  mind  is  clouded,  and  doubts  come,  though  for  the  time  it 
is  not  joyous,  but  grievous,  yet  afterward  it  workethin  us  the  peaceable  fruit 
of  righteousness.  We  rejoice  that  thou  dost  try  us,  and  that  our  faith  is  put 
to  proof,  and  that  we  must  needs  endure  by  patience,  and  by  the  sense  of  the 
invisible,  and  by  faith  in  God,  and  not  by  what  we  can  understand  of  God's 
providence.  We  desire  to  commit  ourselves  to  thy  guidance.  What  is  there 
that  we  would  withhold  from  thee  ?  What  treasure,  what  favorite  plan,  what 
friendship,  what  hope  or  joy  in  life,  is  not  better  for  the  shining  of  thy  face 
upon  it  ?  We  rejoice,  O  Lord,  that  we  may  commit  all  we  have  to  thy  power 
and  wisdom,  and  that  thou  wilt  overrule  everything  so  that  it  shall  work  for 
good  to  us.  Even  so,  blessed  Saviour.  Take  what  thou  wilt  away.  Put  what 
thou  wilt  upon  us.  Grant  thyself,  grant  peace  with  thee,  grant  thy  cleansing 
hope  and  thine  enlightening  faith,  and  it  matters  not  what  else  our  experi- 
ence is  below. 

And  now  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  teach  us  to  win  others,  and 
that  we  may  be  able  to  give  unto  all  whom  we  love,  and  all  who  are  yet  in  the 
darkness  of  unbeUef,  that  power  by  which  we  were  made  willing. 

We  pray  that  thy  work  may  be  revived  in  the  hearts  of  thy  people,  and 
that  it  may  be  planted  in  many  hearts  where  now  is  a  wilderness. 

O  Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  glorify  thyself  in  thy  triumphs  over  ihine 
adversaries.  Redeem  souls  from  selfishness.  Redeem  those  who  are  now  re- 
sisting thee  and  thy  laws.  Grant  that  they  may  be  made  of  a  better  mind. 
May  they  return  with  repentance,  and  find  in  sorrow  joys  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory.  We  pray  for  thy  churches,  and  for  those  that  minister  thy 
truth.  In  thee  may  their  strength  be  from  day  to  day.  Augment  their  skill 
and  power  in  the  proclamation  of  the  truth.  May  they  see  that  their  labor  is 
not  in  vain.  May  the  seed  they  sow  spring  up  and  bring  forth  a  hundred 
fold. 

We  pray  for  thy  cause  in  every  form.  We  pray  that  wars  may  cease ;  that 
all  the  contentions  of  selfishness  and  ambition  may  cease ;  that  men  may  no 
longer  live  by  their  worst  side.  Teach  men  to  live,  we  beseech  of  thee,  by 
that  which  alhes  them  to  God  and  to  immortality.  May  ignorance  be  done 
away,  and  justice,  and  moderation  of  desire,  and  purity,  and  love  prevail 
among  this  people,  and  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  And  make  haste,  we 
beseech  of  thee,  to  grant  the  fulfillment  of  those  promises  which  respect  the 


THE  EEABT-POWEB  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  405 

glory  of  the  good  in  the  last  days  of  the  earth.    Let  thy  kingdom  come,  and 
thy  will  be  done,  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.    Amen, 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Grant,  our  Father,  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  word  of  truth  which  has 
been  spoken.  Draw  us  by  the  sweetness  of  love  into  more  intimate  relations 
to  thee.  Give  us  not  only  the  knowledge  of  outward  things,  but  the  better 
knowledge  of  things  that  come  by  the  inward  sense.  Teach  not  only  our  un- 
derstanding, but  our  moral  sense.  Interpret  to  us,  by  our  daily  experience, 
more  and  more  of  the  mystery  of  God.  Enter  in,  according  to  thy  promise, 
not  simply  to  sup  with  us,  but  to  dwell  and  abide  with  us.  And  may  we  be 
so  transformed  that  all  our  life  shall  be  as  the  life  of  Christ,  so  that  we  may 
be  said  to  be  one  with  him.  And  grant  that  we  may  never  be  unwilling  to 
speak  for  Christ.  May  we  never  shrink  from  his  cross  and  shame.  May  we 
interest  ourselves  in  every  cause  that  is  of  God,  and  that  represents  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  purity  of  God,  and  the  justice  of  God,  and  the  truth  of  God. 
So  may  we  be  thy  faithful  children  indeed.  And  then  bring  us  home.  And 
may  we  be  glad  to  find  that  we  are  already  known  in  heaven,  our  names  writ- 
ten in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life.  And  from  golden  gates  may  there  stream  a 
multitude  which  shall  lift  up  a  song  of  gladness  and  rejoicing,  and  give  us  an 
exceeding  and  abundant  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  thy  glory.  And  to  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amei^ 


XXI. 

The  Lord's  Prayer. 


THE  LORD'S  PRAYEE. 


I  propose  this  evening  to  make  some  remarks  on  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  You  will  find  it  recorded  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Matthew, 
and  the  ninth  verse,  and  onward  ;  and  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of 
Luke,  beginning  with  the  first  verse.  They  only,  of  the  four  Evan- 
gelists, make  mention  of  this  prayer.  And  there  is  some  difference 
between  the  account  given  of  it  by  Luke,  and  that  given  of  it  by 
Matthew. 

"We  find  it  embodied  in  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  with  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  having  its  organic  relations  to  that  memorable  dis- 
course, and  seeming  to  spring  necessarily  out  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  Sermon  took  place.  Any  one  who  reads  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  will  find  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  occupies  just  the  place 
that  was  needed  for  the  completion  of  the  whole  discourse.  And 
yet,  Luke  speaks  of  it  as  if  it  were  delivered  on  another  occasion. 
This  has  given  rise  to  the  impression  that,  perhaps,  it  was  delivered 
twice.  And  yet,  if  it  was  delivered  twice,  it  is  very  singular  that 
Mark,  the  most  accurate,  perhaps,  of  the  four  Evangelists,  and  John, 
the  most  devout,  should  both  of  them  have  omitted  it.  The  words 
of  Luke  are, 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  as  he  was  praying  in  a  certain  place,  when  he 
ceased,  one  of  his  disciples  said  unto  him,  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John 
also  taught  his  disciples.  And  he  said  unto  them,  When  ye  pray,  say.  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven.  Hallowed  by  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come. 
Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  in  earth.  Give  us  day  by  day  our  daily 
bread.  And  forgive  us  our  sins  ;  for  we  also  forgive  every  one  that  is 
indebted  to  us.    And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil." 

Li  Matthew's  version,  you  Avill  find  that  there  is  the  Doxology 
appended.     It  is  the  familiar  Jewish  Doxology  : 

"  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever." 

This  is  unquestionably  a  later  edition.  The  familiar  and  ordinary 
Jewish  Doxology  was  added  to  the  text,  and  the  earliest  editions 
omitted  it.  The  best  scholars  now  agree,  therefore,  that  the  form  in 
Matthew  is  purer  than  the  form  in  Luke.  That  is  to  say,  that  it  is 
fuller,  since  it  contains  this  addition,  which  the  form  in  Luke 
does  not. 

You  will  perceive  that  Luke's  account  of  this  prayer  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  its  being  a  part  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Jesus  was 

SuTTDAY  Evening,  Feb.  25,  1871.  Lesson  :  1  Pet.  n.  9-25.  Hymns  (Plymouth 
CoUectlon)  :  Nos.  1335,  816,  715. 


410  TEE  LOBD^S  PEA  TEE. 

returning  from  one  of  those  Galilean  circuits  of  which  he  made  so 
many  ;  and  coming  in  sight  of  the  sea  of  Galilee  he  stopped  to  feed 
the  vast  multitude  which  had  followed  him,  or  come  forth  to  meet 
liim.  It  is  recorded  that  he  withdrew  from  them,  and  went  up  into 
the  mountains,  and  spent  the  night  in  prayer.  He  came  down  from 
the  mountain  in  the  morning,  apparently,  and  met  his  disciples — his 
nearest,  chosen  disciples — had  some  converse  with  them,  and  then 
went  down  to  the  multitude.  It  is  probable  that  he  began  his  dis- 
course there.  But  such  was  the  throng,  that  he  retired  still  further 
up  ;  and  there  he  delivered  the  discourse. 

This  reconciles  the  two  statements — one  of  which  says  that  he 
delivered  this  sermon  on  a  plain  (apparently  an  immense  level 
plain)  ;  and  the  other  of  which  declares  that  he  delivered  it  upon  a 
mountain  (for  that  term  mountain  was  used  to  signify  an  upland, 
and  not  what  we  mean  when  we  use  it.) 

It  seems  that  our  Master,  after  spending  the  whole  night  in 
prayer,  ascended,  and  began  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  And  when 
you  read  that  Jesus  taught  men  to  pray  in  the  midst  of  this  sermon, 
you  must  not  allow  yourself  to  be  misled  by  the  term  sermon.  You 
must  not  think  of  a  church,  of  a  minister,  of  a  text,  and  of  a  regular 
discourse  such  as  you  are  accustomed  to  associate  with  this  word. 
The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  no  such  thing.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  it  was  delivered  in  the  most  familiar  way,  and  that  he 
was  sometimes  standing  and  sometimes  sitting — for  both  terms  are 
employed  to  designate  the  method.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  it 
was  interlocutory — that  he  discussed  a  certain  point,  and  then  re- 
ceived questions  upon  it  which  he  answered.  Although  none  of 
these  questions  are  reported,  the  discourse  itself  bears  marks,  if  I 
may  so  say,  which  indicate  them.  Topics  are  introduced  and  ter- 
minated in  a  way  which  shows  that  there  were  some  sort  of  intervals. 
Though  they  are  not  locked  one  into  another,  there  wei-e  stops,  evi- 
dently ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  was  interrogated  in  the 
midst  of  his  discourses,  and  that  after  he  had  replied  he  went  on.  It 
is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  thus  he  went  from  point  to 
point.     It  is  recorded  that  one  said  to  him, 

"  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John  taught  bis  disciples,*' 
and  we  may  believe  that  this  took  place  during  the  progress  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

We  are  not,  then,  necessarily  driven  to  the  supposition  that  this 
prayer  was  twice  delivered — once  during  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  once  when  he  was  asked  to  teach  his  disciples  how  to  pray, 
as  John  taught  his.  This  latter  account  is  perfectly  consistent 
with  the  former  j  and  it  is  probable  that  the  circumstance  recorded 


TEE  LOBUS  PBA  YEB.  411 

by  Luke  took  place  when  lie  was  delivering  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount. 

Another  question  of  some  interest  arises — namely,  "Was  this 
Lord's  Prayer  original  with  our  Master,  or  was  it  but  a  collection 
of  the  best  Rabbinic  prayers,  or  the  best  prayers  of  the  Jewish 
people  aforetime  ?  This  question  is  important  only  because  the  most 
modern  spirit  puts  undue  emphasis  upon  originality.  It  is  the  things 
which  are  original  that  call  forth  our  highest  approbation.  Ah, 
what  an  original  sermon !  What  an  original  letter  I  What  an 
original  book  1  Where  one  has  been  wearied  by  repetition,  an 
original  thing  is  very  refreshing.  But  we  are  in  danger  of  over- 
estimating originality,  and  making  mere  freshness  or  first  delivery 
more  important  than  the  intrinsic  quality  of  the  thing  delivered. 

This  leads  us  to  state  that  probably  almost  every  petition  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  although  not  to  be  found  in  precise  terms,  might 
have  been  found  in  sentiment  among  the  best  Jewish  writings  during 
or  preceding,  his  day.  I  do  not  affirm  that  they  were  found  ;  I 
merely  say  that  so  far  as  the  value  of  the  Prayer  is  concerned,  and 
so  far  as  the  honor  of  the  Saviour  is  concerned,  I  would  just  as  lief 
as  not  that  you  would  find  every  one  of  them  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

It  is  not  in  the  originality  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  that  its 
beauty,  or  power,  or  importanc  ?,  or  value  consists.  Nearly  every 
single  sentence  of  the  Beatitudes  I  can  show  you,  in  almost  the 
same  words,  in  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms ;  and  the  sentiments 
are  contained  there  over  and  over  again.  "  Blessed  are  the  poor" ; 
"  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn"  ;  "  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers"  ; 
"  Blessed  are  the  meek" — these  declarations  were  made  before  Christ 
uttered  them,  if  not  in  precise  phraseology,  yet  in  sentiment.  And 
why  should  we  hesitate  to  believe  that  among  such  a  people,  edu- 
cated specially  by  the  divine  Providence,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  where  so  many  prayers  had  been  made,  where  prayers 
were  so  universal,  and  where  they  were  so  necessary  to  the  right 
condition  of  men — why  should  we  hesitate  to  believe  that  among 
such  a  people,  and  under  such  circumstances,  these  petitions  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  were  offered  ten  thousand  times  ?  Why  should  we 
suppose  that  they  were  first  uttered  when  Christ  delivered  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  ?  I  have  no  question  that  the  substance  of  that 
Prayer,  although  it  had  not  existed  in  the  same  form,  or  in  the  same 
phraseology  in  which  Christ  presented  it,  had  been  known  and  em- 
ployed by  thousands  of  souls. 

It  is  therefore  no  reproach,  and  it  takes  nothing  from  the  value 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  nor  from  this  whole  discourse,  to  say  that  they 


412  TEi:  LOBD'S  PBA  TUB. 

were  not  original  with  Christ ;  that  they  were  not  then  first  invented 
when  he  gave  them  to  his  disciples.  We  know  it  was  so  in  respect 
to  the  discourse  at  large. 

Most  excellent  men  have  called  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  a 
charter  of  Christianity.  There  could  be  nothing  more  unfortunate 
than  that  term.  It  was  not  prospective ;  or,  it  was  so  only  to  a 
secondary  extent.  It  was  retrospective.  It  was  a  distinct  summing 
up  of  the  vast  knowledge  that  had  accrued  to  God's  people  up  to 
that  time,  and  a  giving  them  the  highest  spiritual  instruction.  It 
was  expressly  designed  to  bring  together  what  men  had  already 
learned,  that  from  that,  as  a  starting-point,  the  new  dispensation 
and  the  new  life  might  go  on  developing.  And  the  key-note  was 
given  in  these  two  sentences : 

"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law,  or  the  prophets :  I  am 
not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  "  Except  your  righteousness  shall 
exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

We  find,  therefore,  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  of  which  so 
much  is  said,  as  being  a  sufficient  foundation  of  Christianity,  was 
not  original,  so  far  as  the  matter  of  which  it  was  composed  is  con- 
cerned. It  simjjly  grouped  and  gathered  together  all  those  ele- 
ments of  truth  which  had  already  been  disclosed.  The  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  had  not  one  single  sentence  about  faith  :  is  there  no  faith 
in  Christianity  ?  It  had  not  a  single  word  about  Christ,  or  a  Re- 
deemer :  is  there  no  Redeemer  in  Christianity  ?  It  had  not  a  syl- 
lable on  the  subject  of  death  or  immortality  :  is  there  no  death  nor 
immortality  in  Christiany  ?  It  had  nothing  of  future  punishment 
or  reward  :  is  there  nothing  of  these  in  Christianity  ?  Can  that  be 
all  of  Christianity  which  has  no  teaching  of  an  eternal  world,  nor  of 
an  atoning  Saviour  ?  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  in  some  respects 
a  true  exposition  of  Christianity,  or  of  a  part  of  it — that  part  which 
had  been  derived  from  the  Jewish  church.  Gathering  together  in 
that  matchless  discourse  the  best  things  which  had  been  brought  to 
light,  he  said,  as  it  were,  "  Take  these,  now,  into  the  spiritual  life. 
Let  them  contribute  to  your  highest  development.  Adopt  this 
Prayer  as  yours.  When  it  is  claimed  as  Jewish,  I  give  it  to  the 
Jews  ;  it  was  not  original  with  your  Jesus ;  but  it  was  inspired  by 
Jehovah,  although  it  came  through  the  old  dispensation  ;  and  it  is 
just  as  good  for  your  purpose  as  though  it  had  been  first  uttered 
by  me." 

Nothing  is  taken  from  it,  to  prove  that  it  was  in  existence  before 
Christ's  time.  The  beauty  and  power  of  it  do  not  depend  upon  its 
being  shown  to  have  been  first  thought  of  when  the  Saviour  an- 
ngunced  it  to  his  disciples.    It  is  the  combination  of  the  elements  of 


TEE  LOED'S  PBA  TUB.  413 

which  it  is  composed,  and  their  incorporation  into  a  higher  spiritual 
life,  that  makes  them  beautiful  and  powerful. 

Another  question  arises,  namely,  Was  this  Prayer  of  our  Saviour 
a  model  and  suggestion  of  prayer,  or  was  it  a  form  to  be  used  li- 
turgically  ?     I  hold  it  to  have  been  a  suggestion.     There  is  no  ob- 
jection to  using  it  as  a  form  liturgically  ;  but  there  is  no  evidence 
(and  much  to  the  contrary)  that  our  Saviour  designed  that  the  dis- 
ciples should  take  this  Prayer,  and  repeat  it  Avord  for  word,  liturgi- 
cally.     If  he  had  so  designed,   the  variations  of  phraseology  in 
Luke    and  Matthew   would   be   unaccountable    and    inexplicable. 
More  than  this,  if  it  was  to  be  a  set  form,  and  obligatory,  how  does 
it  happen  that  there  is  no  further  allusion  to  it  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ?     The  Saviour  never  referred  to  it  except  on  this  one  occasion. 
There  was  no  reference  made  to  it  by  the  apostles  in  their  instruc- 
tion to  the  churches.     Christian  churches  existed  for  more  than  fifty 
years  without  a  written  Gospel ;  and  there  is  no  hint  that,  by  tra- 
dition or  otherwise,  it  was  made  imperative  on  Christians  to  repeat 
the  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  form  in  which  it  stands.     It  was  three 
hundred  years  before  it  began  to  take  on  that  form,  which  after- 
ward became  a  superstition  until  the  Pater  Noster  degenerated  al- 
most into  contempt.     The  repetition  of  it,  once,  twice,  thrice,  a  hun- 
dred times,  was  supposed  to  have  some  virtue.     The  counting  the 
beads,  and  saying  the  Lord's  Prayer  at  every  one  of  them,  thus 
multiplying  the  mere  "  vain  repetitions "  by  scores  and  hundreds, 
was  prescribed,  and  was  supposed  to  have  some  inherent  benefit  in 
it.     This  shows  how  degenerate  the  Christian  heart  and  imagination 
had  become. 

That  we  are  permitted  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  a  part  of 
a  liturgy,  I  need  not  argue  ;  but  the  question  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
formulated  prayer,  as  to  whether  it  is  better  that  a  prayer  should 
be  prescribed,  and  followed  in  sequence,  and  in  the  same  terms  al- 
ways, is  involved  ;  and  about  that  I  have  only  to  say,  that  they  who 
find  that  they  can  pray  better  out  of  the  Book  have  God's  dear 
leave  to  pray  out  of  the  Book.  That  road  in  which  your  feet  as- 
cend easiest  and  fastest  toward  the  heavenly  gate  is  your  road  ;  and 
you  need  no  priest,  no  minister,  no  authority,  to  tell  you  to  walk  in 
it.  If  you  can  pray  more  to  edification  by  the  formulated  prayers 
of  the  church  than  by  extemporaneous  prayers,  so  pray.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  cast  any  aspersion  upon  them.  Nor  is  it  for  you  to  turn 
upon  me  and  say  that  extemporaneous  prayers  are  indecent  and  un- 
edifying.  You  have  a  right  to  say  that  they  do  not  edify  you,  but 
not  to  say  that  they  do  not  edify  me  and  other  people. 

It  seems  unnecessary  that  there  should  be  a  perpetual  jar  and 


4 1 4  TME  LOBD'8  PEA  YEB. 

collision  between  the  two  schools,  one  of  whom  write  their  prayers 
and  then  read  them,  and  the  other  of  whom  speak  out  of  their  soul 
extemporaneously. 

In  regard  to  public  service,  there  is  this  to  be  said  :  that  where 
men  have  the  gift  of  prayer,  it  would  seem  far  more  edifying  that 
one  should  pray  out  of  his  heart  and  experience  and  judgment,  and 
out  of  his  knowledge  of  the  want  of  the  community  to  which  he 
ministers.  On  the  other  hand,  where  men  have  not  the  gift  of 
prayer,  where  their  extemporaneous  prayers  are  dry  and  useless,  one 
naturally  longs  for  the  stately  grandeur  of  the  prayers  of  the  Book, 
— for,  if  we  speak  of  written  prayers,  of  course  we  think  of  those 
in  the  dear  old  Episcopal  Prayer-book — the  book  of  our  fathers. 
Although  I  was  not  brought  up  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  that 
church  to  me  is  full  of  venerableness.  And  indeed,  I  am  filled  with 
gratitude  to  it  for  the  great  service  which  it  has  done  to  Christian- 
ity through  so  many  ages.  Therefore  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a 
common  ground.  Let  those  use  the  Book  who  find  the  most  edifi- 
cation in  it ;  and  let  those  who  find  their  gifts  leading  them  outside 
of  the  Book  have  their  liberty.  Bear  with  each  other,  and  rejoice 
each  in  the  other's  gifts  and  liberties. 

In  private  prayer,  however,  it  seems  to  me  preeminently  desira- 
ble that  men  should  not  lean  on  the  crutches  of  the  book ;  that 
every  one  in  his  own  household,  and  especially  in  his  closet,  should 
learn,  if  he  has  not  learned  already,  to  commune  with  God  as  one 
speaks  to  another,  face  to  face.  I  am  far  more  clear  and  decided  on 
this  point  than  I  am  upon  the  other. 

With  these  preliminaries,  let  us  analyze  a  little  the  contents  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer.     We  will  take  it  as  it  is  recorded  in  Matthew : 

"After  this  manner,'  therefore,  pray  ye:    Our   Father,  which  art  in 
heaven." 

Here  you  have  the  standpoint.  We  are  to  come  to  God,  not  as 
the  subjects  of  a  monarch.  Still  less  are  we  to  come  before  God  as 
abject  servants.  And  certainly  we  are  not  to  come  into  the  presence 
of  God  as  slaves  come  trembling  into  the  presence  of  their  despot. 
The  very  opening  of  the  prayer  places  us  in  a  filial  relation  to  God. 
One  might  say  that  no  man  prays  well  the  Prayer  of  the  Lord  whose 
heart  does  not  first  cry  out,  "  My  Father  !"  It  is  the  call  of  the  soul 
to  its  dearest  and  best  heavenly  Friend ;  and  no  man  who  is  merely 
reverential  can  pray  this  Prayer.  Bow  down  the  head  till  it  touches 
the  ground.  Let  the  heart  be  weighed  down  with  awe  and  venera- 
tion that  does  not  enable  the  lip  to  speak  a  word  aright.  It  is  not 
what  breaks  us  down  before  God  that  fits  us  to  go  into  his  pres- 
ence.    It  is  that  which  lifts  us  up  toward  him.     It  is  our  yearning 


TEE  LOBB'8  PEA  YER.  4 1 5 

for  him,  our  realization  of  his  true  paternity,  and  our  corresponding 
filial  atiection  toward  him,  which  give  us  liberty  to  say  the  first 
sentence  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  a  sentence  that  casts  its  light 
far  back  into  the  old  dispensation,  and  also  far  forward  into  the 
new  dispensation.  For,  whatever  you  may  find  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, you  will  not  find  much  there  that  would  lead  men  to  approach 
Jehovah  as  a  father.  There  is  a  recognition  of  fatherhood  there ; 
but  it  was  not  the  manner  and  habit  of  the  people  of  Israel  so  to 
approach  their  God.  It  is  distinctively  Christian  in  this  respect, 
that  it  is  made  to  be  the  genius  of  Christianity.  We  are  not  to  go 
to  a  crowned  monarch.  We  are  not  to  take  our  conception  of  God's 
code  from  the  codes  of  civil  rulers.  We  are  to  lift  up,  in  our  imag- 
ination and  in  our  alFection,  the  dearest  and  purest  and  most  loving 
household.  That  is  the  divine  ideal  of  government,  as  prefigured  in 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  we  draw  near  to  God,  there- 
fore, we  draw  near  saying,  in  the  very  first  sentence,  "  Our  Father." 
And  with  that  word,  what  may  we  not  petition  for  ?  What  may 
not  the  child  say  in  the  ear  of  his  parent  ?  What  confidence  is  more 
utter  than  that  which  exists  between  the  parent  and  the  child  that 
loves  and  is  loved  at  home?  What  is  there  that  the  child  may  not  ask 
of  the  father ;  or,  what  confidence  is  there  that  he  may  not  repose 
in  the  father  ?  If  the  child  has  gone  wrong,  how  easy  it  is  for  him 
to  ask  forgiveness  of  the  father  ?  Or  if  the  child  desires  to  take  on 
privilege,  what  is  there  that  he  is  ashamed  or  unwilling  to  ask  of  his 
father  ?  For  all  that  the  father  has  is  for  the  children.  And  al- 
though in  the  household  there  is  a  distinction  of  rights  and  proper- 
ties, yet,  in  proportion  as  love  prevails  this  distinction  is  hidden, 
and  other  relationships  appear ;  and  all  who  are  in  the  house  feel 
that  each  is  a  member  of  the  other,  and  that  they  have  all  things  in 
common.  So,  whatever  there  is  of  beauty,  and  of  good,  and  of  privi- 
lege, and  of  permission,  the  child  freely  asks  of  the  father  in  the 
household. 

This  same  thing  is  implied  in  the  very  first  sentence  with  which, 
in  the  Christian  life,  we  address  our  God.  We  are  permitted  to  dis- 
arm him  of  all  the  terrors  which  hover  around  the  fate-gods  of  an- 
tiquity ;  to  drop  off  the  magisterial  relations  which  have  been  as- 
sociated with  him ;  to  no  longer  see  him  sitting  enthroned  with 
severity  on  his  brow,  with  justice  in  his  eye,  with  the  implements 
of  power  in  his  hand,  and  with  the  circumstance  of  administration 
around  about  him ;  but  to  see  him  sitting  as  One  to  wlioni  we  may 
draw  near  with  associations  of  loving  tenderness.  And  we  say,  "  Our 
Father."  And  with  that  word  fear  flies,  and  doubts  disappear,  and 
the  heart  rests. 


4 1 6  THE  LOED'S  PEA  lEE, 

"  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven." 

He  is  not  weak  or  impoverished,  as  earthly  parents  are.  He  is 
not  down  on  the  level  of  our  ignorance.  He  is  not,  like  us,  rolled 
over  the  banks  of  obscure  mist  and  fog.  He  is  lifted  above  the  weak- 
ness of  life  into  the  immortality  and  strength  and  purity  and  beauty 
of  the  heavenly  land.  He  is  the  glorious  Father  of  an  eternal 
sphere. 

"  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven." 

The  little  child  lisps  it.  These  precious  words  are  among  the  earliest 
that  we  learn  to  utter.  The  child  hears  the  parents  devoutly  utter 
them,  and  his  thought  passes  from  the  lower  parentage,  taking  the 
hint  and  suggestion  of  the  father  and  mother  to  lift  before  itself  the 
higher  fatherhood.  .  This  is  the  most  blessed  conception  the  child 
can  take  of  God,  and  the  greater  love  of  heaven,  and  the  better 
household. 

"  Hallowed  be  thy  name." 

Once  brought  into  the  divine  presence,  the  soul's  first  outburst  is 
such  as  an  absent  child  speaks.  Do  you  know  what  it  is  to  be  home- 
sick ?  Were  you  ever  sent  away  from  home  when  small,  as  I  was? 
Do  you  remember  what  it  was  to  remain  and  count  the  weeks  and 
days  and  hours  ?  Do  you  recollect  how  you  could  not  sleep  the  night 
before  you  were  to  start  for  home ;  and  how  you  could  not  eat  your 
breakfast ;  how  when  the  stage  was  waiting  for  you  the  excitement 
took  away  all  your  appetite ;  and  how  as  you  rolled  over  the  jour- 
ney you  thought  you  would  surprise  the  family  when  you  got  home; 
how,  when  at  last  you  got  there,  you  thought  of  some  little  device 
by  which  you  would  take  them  by  surprise,  but  how,  when  you 
rushed  into  the  house,  all  you  could  do  was  to  throw  your  arms  about 
your  mother's  neck,  and  cry,  and  say,  "  Oh  !  dear  mother  !" 

That  is  the  generous  way  in  which  the  child's  heart  pours  itself 
out.  This  is  an  illustration  of  the  current,  the  gush,  the  enthusiasm, 
of  that  love  which  children  feel.  The  child's  love  goes  out  to  meet 
the  parent's  love,  as  the  most  beautiful,  the  dearest,  the  most  sacred, 
the  most  holy  thing ;  and  for  the  moment  love  worships  love. 

This  I  suppose  to  be  the  interpretation  of  Ilallo'wed  he  thy  name. 
As  it  were,  the  soul  opens  its  arms,  and  throws  them  around  the  Fa- 
ther in  heaven,  and  says,  "  O  Lord  and  Father !  sacred  and  holy  be 
thy  name."  It  is  the  impulse  of  one  who  wants  the  Father  to  be 
most  beloved,  glorious,  beautiful,  and  sacred,  not  only  to  himself, 
but  to  all. 

"Thy  kingdom  come.    Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven." 
These  petitions  are  one.     The  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom  of 
love,  of  joy,  of  peace.     The  law  of  God  is  that  which  produces  order, 
truth,  equity,  and  so  love,  peace,  good- will  j  and  these  petitions  come 


TEE  LOBB'S  FBAYEB,  417 

from  the  aspirations  of  the  heart  for  that  more  perfect  state,  in  it- 
self and  throughout  the  universe,  in  which  God  himself  dwells.  It 
is  as  if  the  child  saw  how  beautiful  was  the  palace  of  his  Father  God, 
and  longed  that  the  same  beautiful  and  blessed  estate  should  be 
universal,  and  that  it  should  be  to  others,  as  to  him,  that  kingdom  m 
which  dwelleth  righteousness, 

"  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

That  is  the  law  of  joy  in  all  the  universal  realm. 

Thus  far  the  Prayer  respects  things  beyond  our  own  personal 
interest.  Now  we  are  permitted,  as  it  were,  to  make  mention  of  our 
private  want. 

"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 

This  is  a  recognition  of  divine  providence.  It  is  a  recognition 
of  that  care  for  our  sustenance  which  in  the  fatherly  government  of 
God  is  continually  going  on. 

"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.** 

You  will  never  know  what  that  means,  probably.  Where  it  was 
first  uttered,  in  a  majority  of  the  instances  of  those  that  heard  it,  it 
was  a  question,  every  day,  where  they  were  to  get  the  sustenance  of 
that  day.  They  lived  within  ahandbreadth  of  starvation.  They  had 
no  stores.  They  had  laid  up  nothing  in  advance.  They  had  no 
wealth.  Their  food,  at  best,  was  but  a  handful  of  grain.  It  was 
very  slender  compared  with  our  table  bounties.  They  lived  all  the 
time  in  intimacy  with  famine.  And  when  Christ  taught  them  to  say 
to  God, 

"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread," 
he  touched  a  chord  that  was  always  vibrating  in  their  hearts.  By 
faith,  it  brought  them,  in  respect  to  the  want  which  nature  presses 
most  closely  upon  men,  into  direct  connection  with  the  sovereign 
providence  of  God  in  the  aifairs  of  this  world.  It  reminds  one  of 
that  other  passage,  where  our  Saviour  said, 

"Your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things. 
But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 

This  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  petition, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 

It  is  not  a  prayer  of  anxiety.  It  is  a  prayer  of  confidence  in  the 
divine  providence  of  God  and  recognition  of  it. 

*'  And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors." 

Here  the  heart  recognizes  its  own  inferiority  and  imperfection 
and  sinfulness.  It  also  recognizes,  when  it  asks  forgiveness,  that  it 
is  itself  in  a  forgiving  mood. 

"And  lead  us  not  into  temptation." 

Suffer  us  not  to  be  led  into  temptation,  is  the  meaning  of  that 
passage.  No  man  knows  what  he  will  do  when  he  is  tempted,  nor 
what  he  will  undo. 


4 1 8  THE  LORD'S  PEA  TEE, 

•*  But  deliver  us  from  evil.' 

Now,  although  this  prayer  is  so  simple,  yet  when  we  come  to 
look  into  these  various  petitions,  I  think  we  shall  see  that  scarcely 
anything  can  be  asked  in  this  world  that  may  not  be  appropriately 
gathered  under  one  or  other  of  these  various  heads.  There  is  no  extent 
of  experience,  and  no  want,  that  may  not  properly  be  considered  as 
but  an  enlargement  of  one  or  other  of  these  petitions.  This  is  more 
nearly,  therefore,  a  universal  prayer,  than  any  other  prayer  that  was 
ever  framed.  It  is  among  the  shortest,  and  yet  among  the  most 
comprehensive  and  suggestive. 

There  is  infinite  latitude  allowed  under  it.  We  are  not  to  shut 
ourselves  up  simply  to  the  repetition  of  these  phrases. 

Our  view  of  the  communion  of  the  soul  with  God  ;  that  fellow- 
ship which  we  have  with  God  ;  the  interchange  of  thought  and  sym- 
pathy which  the  refined  Christian  heart  loves  to  take  with  God — all 
these  come  appropriately  under  that  head.  All  the  desires  of  a  man 
for  worldly  good  may  appropriately  be  brought  under  the  head, 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  All  the  fears  men  have,  come  in 
under  the  head,  Lead  us  not  into  temi^tation.  Deliver  us  from  evil. 
All  the  things  that  you  need  for  yourself,  or  for  your  children,  traced 
back,  are  found,  in  their  initial  forms,  in  this  Lord's  Prayer.  This 
is  a  birthright  prayer,  belonging  to  every  man.  A  gate,  it  is, 
through  which  every  living  soul  may  pass.  Each  petition  is  a  sepa- 
rate gate.  And  beyond  is  an  infinite  variety  of  blessed  things. 
These  gates  open,  as  it  were,  into  a  garden  where  are  growing  fruits 
and  flowers  in  wonderful  profusion.  Endless  diversities  of  things 
are  there ;  and  all  of  them  are  appropriate  to  the  utterance  of  this 
prayer. 

Are  we  to  repeat  it  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  given,  and  in  that 
form  only  ?  The  Saviour  says  that  we  are  to  pray  after  this  man- 
ner. His  words  were,  not,  This  prayer  pray  ye,  but,  After  this 
ma)i7ier  pray  ye. 

Who  may  pray  it  ?  Every  one.  May  the  pirate  pray  it,  on  his 
bloody  deck  ?  If  he  can,  he  may.  May  the  murderer  pray  it,  while 
the  noose  is  yet  swinging  and  waiting  for  his  neck  ?  If  he  desires 
to,  he  may.  May  the  reeling  debauchee,  returning  from  his  night's 
excess,  and  wearied  and  jaded  and  depressed,  pray  it  ?  If  he  has  a 
heart  to,  he  may.  May  the  man  who  has  been  overcome  again  and 
again  and  again  by  the  temptation  of  the  woi'ld,  who  still  is  stand- 
ing in  the  presence  of  his  conqueror  (the  sin  that  doth  so  easily 
beset  him),  and  who  is  ashamed  that  he  is  so  often  carried  away — 
may  he,  with  a  full  consciousness  of  his  wickedness  and  insincerity, 
and  broken  promises,  and  worthless  life,  and  sinful  heart,  pray?    If 


THE  LOBD'S  PBAYEE.  419 

he  desires  to,  he  may.  May  a  man  before  he  is  converted  call  God 
F'ather?  There  is  only  one  condition  that  stands  between  you  and 
your  calling  God  Father,  and  that  is,  that,  being  a  sinner,  you  have 
not  a  real  desire  to  be  released  from  your  sins.  If  you  love  sin, 
if  you  love  wickedness,  and  you  use  the  Lord's  prayer  to  parry  judg- 
ments with,  then  I  forewarn  you.  Let  it  alone.  Touch  it  not.  But 
the  mere  circumstance  of  being  a  sinner  does  not  disqualify  one  from 
praying  to  God.  Is  not  the  sacrifice  of  the  wicked  an  abomination 
to  God  ?  Yes.  If  a  man  tries  to  garnish  his  wickedness  by  sacri- 
fice, and  he  thinks  sacrifice  is  an  atonement  for  that  wickedness,  and 
that  after  sacrifice  he  may  go  on  with  plenary  indulgence  again, 
then  it  is  an  abomination  to  God.  But  to  interpret  it  so  that  a  man 
may  not  pray  until  he  is  converted,  is  to  shut  out  the  universe.  If 
God  made  provision  for  wicked  men,  who  are  they  that  may  not 
find  succor  and  help  by  praying  to  him  ?  May  not  my  son,  who, 
little  by  little,  has  been  weakened,  and  has  gone  down,  step  by  step, 
and  has  fallen  into  the  nets  of  gamblers  and  drinkers,  and  has  come 
to  poverty,  and  through  years  and  years  of  degradation  has  sep- 
arated himself  from  me,  until  sickness  overtakes  him — when  then, 
in  his  wretchedness,  he  has  fevered  dreams  of  his  home,  and  of  me, 
may  he  not  call  out,  "  O,  my  father"  ?  May  he  not  invoke  his 
mother  until  he  has  been  restored  to  health,  and  to  his  right  mind, 
and  until  he  comes  back  to  his  father's  house  as  good  as  he  went 
away?  May  he  not,  in  his  low  and  suffering  condition,  ask  help 
and  pity  of  his  father  and  mother  ?  When  does  your  heart  most 
need  the  healing  of  another  heart,  but  when  it  is  wickedest  and 
worst  ?  In  that  infirmity  which  sin  brings  ;  in  that  prostration  of 
moral  power  which  tends  to  wrong-doing — there  is  Avhcre  a  man 
most  needs  God's  pity  and  God's  mercy.  Is  that  the  time  that  a 
man's  mouth  shall  be  shut,  and  he  shall  not  say,  "  O  God,  my  Father, 
help  me"  ?  Is  prayer  the  privilege  of  Christians,  and  not  the  privi- 
lege of  men  who  are  not  Christians  ?  Is  it  the  privilege  of  those 
who  have  been  brought  into  the  light  of  faith,  and  not  the  privilege 
of  those  who  have  not  made  proof  of  faith,  and  are  afar  ofl"  from  it  ? 

Wherever  there  is  a  man  who  feels  the  sting  of  sin,  and  would 
have  release,  he  has  a  right  to  say,  "  O,  Father,  help  me  1"  Wherc- 
iver  there  is  a  man  who  is  conscious  that  he  has  done  wrong  again 
and  again  and  again,  and  that  in  his  own  strength  he  never  can 
stand,  and  that  he  needs  help,  he  has  a  right  to  ask  for  it.  "  I  am 
lost  in  sin  ;  I  have  no  strength  to  rescue  myself ;  thou  art  God  ; 
save  me  !" — that  is  an  argument  which  knocks  louder  at  the  bosom 
of  God  than  any  battle-ax  at  the  gate  of  any  castle  on  earth. 

If  any  man  feels  that  he  is  so  weak  that  he  cannot  sustain  him- 


420  TEU  LOED'S  PBAYEB. 

self,  there  is  strength  for  him  if  he  will  ask  it ;  and  he  has  a  right 
to  ask  it,  though  his  name  is  on  no  church  book.  And  though  men 
condemn  you,  God  forgives  you.  If  your  father  and  mother  forget 
you,  the  Lord  will  take  you  up.  If  your  friends  and  neighbors  cast 
you  off,  God  will  not  forsake  you.  So  long  as  you  have  life,  so  long 
as  you  know  enough  to  want  to  be  better  than  you  are,  no  matter 
what  your  antecedents  have  been,  you  have  a  right  to  go  to  God, 
and  say,  "  Our  Father." 

This  prayer,  with  its  hope  and  cheer,  and  with  its  associations, 
must  at  times  come  most  bitterly  to  many  and  many  a  wanderer. 
Ye  that  have  been  across  the  deep ;  ye  that  in  foreign  lands  have 
left  behind  you,  not  only  the  form  of  your  parents,  but  almost  every 
memory  of  them ;  ye  that  have  forsaken  the  paths  of  belief,  and 
have  grown  worldly,  and  become  hoary  in  worldliness,  and  have  for- 
gotten the  God  of  your  father  and  mother,  are  there  not  times 
when,  as  you  behold  little  children  kneeling  before  their  mother, 
with  innocent  face  and  upturned  eyes,  and  learning  to  repeat,  with 
broken  language,  and  sweet  simplicity,  this  Prayer — are  there  not 
such  times  when  a  chord  of  memory  is  struck  in  your  hearts  ?  How 
different  were  you  when  you  knelt  at  your  mother's  knee  and  re- 
peated that  Prayer  !  Do  you  not  remember  it  ?  And  in  the  old, 
brown  house,  over  which  the  elms  used  to  swing  their  branches, 
storm-tossed,  do  you  not  remember  how  you  repeated  unwittingly 
these  strange  sentences,  looking  askance  here  and  there  in  an 
unconscious,  half  roguery  ?  Do  you  not  remember  the  even- 
ing song  !  Do  you  not  remember  the  parting  kiss  as  you  retired  to 
rest  ?  And  in  the  night,  when  some  fear  seized  you,  do  you  not  re- 
member the  hasty  presence  of  your  watching  mother  ?  She  is 
dead.  She  died  in  the  faith  of  the  Saviour.  She  has  gone  home. 
It  may  be  that  she  has  been  your  guardian  angel.  You  have  gone 
far  from  her  precepts.  You  have  forsaken  the  guide  of  your  youth. 
You  have  become  hard-hearted  and  worldly-minded.  Oh,  sadly 
wandering  man  !  does  not  the  thought  of  your  childhood  sometimes 
come  back  to  you  with  overpowering  freshness  ?  At  times  you  used 
to  recite  with  unwonted  fervor  this  matchless  prayer  of  the  Saviour, 
given  for  all  mankind,  and  for  you.  It  once  was  familiar  to  you. 
And  does  it  not  draw  you  back  with  powerful  memories  and  asso- 
ciations to  the  blessed  and  innocent  days  of  your  youth  ?  When 
you  think  of  what  you  were,  and  what  you  meant  to  be,  and  what 
you  are,  does  it  never  give  a  pang  to  your  heart,  and  do  you  not 
wish  that  you  could  now  be  of  the  same  faith  and  the  same  hope 
that  your  parents  were  ?  Do  you  not  wish  that  you  were  joined 
with  them,  in  simplicity,  in  purity,  and  in  fervent  piety,  to  God  ? 


THE  L  ORB'S  PEA  TEB,  4  2  I 

Jln^  are  there  not  some  prayerless  souls  here  to-night  who  will 
be  tempted  to  come  back  ?  Are  there  not  some  of  you  who,  though 
you  have  not  taken  the  name  of  God  upon  your  lips  for  years,  except 
for  profane  purposes,  will  go  down  on  your  knees  before  you  sleep, 
and  repeat  once  more,  solemnly,  tenderly,  yearningly,  the  Lord's 
Prayer  ?  And  then,  when  the  morrow  comes,  I  beg  you  to  pray, 
"  Lead  me  not  into  temptation.  Deliver  me  this  day  from  evil." 
And  gently,  even  by  so  small  a  thing  as  this,  you  may  be  led, 
step  by  step,  until  the  whole  way  of  prayer  shall  become  familiar  to 
your  feet.  And  then,  when  life  departs,  no  longer  afar  off,  not  know- 
ing what  to  pray  for  as  you  ought,  you  shall  stand  and  see  your  God 
face  to  face,  and  find  that  his  fatherhood  is  sweeter,  and  larger,  and 
more  real  and  rich  than  it  has  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
ceive. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the 
earth/  from  everlastmg  to  everlasting  thou  art  God.  Thou  tumest  man  to  de- 
struction, and  say  est,  Return  ye  children  of  men.  For  a  thousand  years  in  thy 
sight  are  but  as  yesterday,  when  it  is  past,  and  as  a  watch  ui  the  night.  O  thou 
that  changest  not,  that  art  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  under 
thy  wings  we  would  put  ourselves  and  be  secure.  How  feeble  is  our  strength ! 
How  are  we  crushed  as  before  the  moth !  How  is  our  wisdom  but  as  the  t-vvi- 
light !  How  often  are  our  desires,  at  their  best  estate,  leading  us  to  destruc- 
tion !  How  are  our  plans  brought  to  desolation  as  in  a  moment.  We  look 
out  upon  life  and  see  how  generations  come  and  thrive,  and  pass,  and  perish^ 
that  others  may  make  the  long  and  repeated  experiment  of  ignorance,  and 
weakness,  and  temptation,  and  sin,  and  sorrow,  and  sighing,  and  death.  And 
still  creation  travails,  burdened,  groaning  in  pain  until  now.  O  thou  Deliv- 
erer! when  wilt  thou  appear?  When  shall  come  the  new  heaven  and  the 
new  earth,  in  which  dwelleth  righteousness  ?  When  shall  men  be  lifted  up 
from  their  degradation  ?  It  is  not  enough  that  we  are  bom  into  happiness 
and  secure.  Are  not  all  races  our  fellows,  and  our  brethren  ?  How  can  we 
be  content  that  the  decrees  of  God's  mercy  are  fulfilled  toward  us,  when  we 
look  out  upon  the  uncounted  millions  of  men  that  have  no  God  but  idols,  no 
knowledge  but  of  things  degrading,  and  no  hope  but  in  things  base  and  low  ? 
O  thou  that  art  the  Father  of  man,  what  hast  thou  done  for  thine  household 
upon  earth  ?  How  are  thy  children  scattered  to  the  uttermost  portions  there- 
of !  Thou  liast  promised  to  redeem  the  world ;  hast  thou  forgotten  to  be  gra- 
cious? Thou  hast  promised  that  yet  the  whole  earth  shall  see  thy  salvation  ; 
where  is  the  blessed  age  in  which  there  shall  be  this  fulfillment  ?  We  beseech 
of  thee  that  thou  wilt  strengthen  our  faith.  Our  hope  is  in  thee.  Heaven  is 
the  strength  and  the  wisdom  of  the  human ;  and  little  do  we  derive  of  com- 
fort, or  courage,  or  hope  from  the  sight  of  our  eyes.  Thou,  in  thine  infinite 
resources  of  power,  art  strong ;  but  stronger  art  thou  hi  thy  love  and  sympa- 
thy. Thou  art  stronger  than  the  ages,  or  than  all  the  races  of  men.  And  we 
believe  in  thee,  though  we  cannot  beUeve  in  the  things  which  we  look  upon, 


422  THJE  LORD'S  FBA  TUB 

nor  solve  the  natures  that  are  in  them,  nor  reconcile  the  thousand  doubts 
that  come  to  afflict  us.  We  believe  in  thee,  in  thy  wisdom,  in  thy  govern- 
ment, in  thy  power  to  subdue  all  things  to  thyself,  and  in  the  final  glory 
of  thine  administration,  when  thou  shalt  acquit  thyself  before  all  creatures, 
and  rise  triumphant  over  the  conflicts  of  ages,  and  morality  shall  prevail,  and 
joy  and  happiness  fill  up  the  measure  that  now  sorrow  and  sighing  fill. 

O  Lord,  our  God,  come  quickly.  The  whole  earth  doth  wait  for  thee.  "We 
are  glad  for  so  many  as  have  escaped  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  Their 
faces  are  seen  here  no  more ;  but  their  voices  are  heard  in  heaven,  and  their 
blessed  hearts  are  there,  and  there  their  joys  abound.  In  that  great  house- 
hold where  none  are  lost,  we  have  our  little  children.  They  are  angel-attend, 
ed.  They  walk  forth  radiant  in  thy  realm  of  light  and  beauty.  Those  that 
once  bore  sin,  and  sorrow,  and  temptation  with  us  are  now  gone  to  heaVen. 
The  hands  that  taught  our  hands  are  there.  The  hearts  from  whom  our 
hearts  learned  to  love  are  with  thee.  A  great  company,  a  growing  church, 
every  day  increasing,  there  is  on  high,  of  those  who  have  been  our  compan- 
ions on  the  earth.  Grant  that  we  may  have  patience  to  wait  until  our  time 
comes ;  until  we  are  permitted  to  come  out  of  the  winter  into  the  daylight, 
the  noon-day  glory,  of  the  sunless  land. 

O  Lord  our  God,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  we  may  take 
courage  from  the  victories  of  those  who  have  gone  before,  and  hold  on  a  little 
longer  in  the  midst  of  trials,  and  under  temptations.  When  our  faith  fails» 
may  we  still  have  the  light  of  thy  countenance,  and  the  joy  of  thy  salvation. 

And  now,  wilt  thou  grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  thy  blessing  to-night  upon 
all  waiting  souls  in  thy  presence.  Listen  to  the  heart's  aspirations  of  prayer. 
Hear  all  those  who  make  their  complaints  before  thee.  Hear  all  that  moum- 
Be  near  to  all  that  pray.  Regard  the  petitions  which  they  most  need  to  have 
answered,  rather  than  those  which  they  most  vehemently  urge.  By  thy  wis- 
dom overrule  their  wisdom.  We  pray  that  thy  will  may  be  done,  and  not 
our  own.  Guide  us  so  long  as  we  shall  live.  And  when,  at  last,  we  come  to 
the  valley,  of  the  shadow  of  death,  may  they  that  look  down  into  it,  when 
their  sight  fails  to  follow  us,  hear  our  voices  rejoicing  as  we  go  forward,  vic- 
torious, up  on  the  other  side.  And  then  we  will  give  the  praise  of  our  salva 
tion  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  evermore.    Amen, 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMOISr. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  spoken ;  and  grant  that 
it  may  rest  on  many  hearts  as  the  dew  rests  upon  the  flower,  or  as  the  ruin 
falls  upon  the  ground.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  fructify  thy  word. 
Make  it  bring  forth  a  hundred-fold.  Deliver  us,  we  pray  thee,  from  lives  that 
have  in  them  no  prayer.  Deliver  us  from  hearts  that  do  not  desire  God.  May 
our  weak  and  spent  hearts  be  strengthened,  and  refilled  from  the  bounty  and 
grandeur  of  thine.  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.  Deliver  its  from  evil.  And 
so,  O  Lord,  we  pray  that  in  our  hearts  thy  kingdom  may  come,  and  that  in 
our  lives  thy  will  may  be  done.  Our  Father,  take  care  of  us  in  this  life,  and 
bring  us  to  the  other.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  and  the  glory. 
Amen. 


XXII. 

Remnants. 


EEMNANTS. 


"  A  remnant  shall  be  saved."— Rom.  IX.,  27. 


The  whole  passage  is  this  : 

"  Esaias  also  erieth  concerning  Israel,  Though  the  number  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  a  remnant  shall  be  saved." 

This  reference  to  Esaias  interprets  the  use  of  this  peculiar  phrase, 
a  remnant.  There  is  something  very  pathetic  in  its  use  in  the  Old 
Testament.  There  never  was  a  great  people  who  had  stronger  na- 
tional attachments,  or  a  stronger  love  for  home  and  their  native 
country,  than  the  Jews.  It  was  a  part  of  that  economy  under 
which  they  were  brought  up,  to  beget  this  intense  local  attachment, 
and  this  fidelity  to  the  ideas  which  belonged  to  the  old  Hebrew 
commonwealth.  And  yet  they  lay  between  the  great  neighborino- 
nations  very  much  as  wheat  lies  between  the  upper  and  lower  mill- 
stones, and  spent  most  of  their  historic  life  in  being  ground.  They 
were  bruised  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other.  Sometimes  it  was 
Damascus ;  sometimes  it  was  Babylon ;  sometimes  it  was  Egypt ; 
sometimes  the  Romans,  and  sometimes  the  Greeks.  Somebody  was 
at  them  pretty  much  all  the  time.  Nor  was  it  enough  that  they 
were  made  very  wretched  at  home  ;  it  was  the  custom  to  take  them 
up  and  carry  them  away.  By  successive  depredations  the  land  was 
completely  emptied.  For  instance,  the  central  region  of  Palestine, 
which  afterward  was  called  Samaria,  was  so  totally  emptied  of  its 
original  population,  and  another  heathen  population  had  so  filled  it 
that  for  generations,  probably,  there  was  not  a  drop  of  Jewish  blood 
in  the  veins  of  the  settlei'S  there.  Afterward  there  was  a  scatter- 
ing of  the  Jews  among  them ;  these  intermarried  with  them ;  and 
so  the  races  became  mixed. 

In  these  circumstances,  it  frequently  happened  that  those  who 
remained  in  the  land  at  the  south  were  but  a  handful,  compared 
with  the  whole  nation  before  the  ten  tribes  were  broken  off"  and  dis- 
persed. When  all  the  tribes  Avere  there  in  their  might,  they  were 
a  great  and  valiant  people.  There  was  not  then,  and  I  think  there 
is  not  now,  such  a  stock  on  the  face  of  the  earth  as  the  Jewish  for 

StTNDAY  EvENTNG,   Dec.  4,  1870.     Lesson  :   Psa.   XC.      Hymns  (Plymouth  Co'- 
lection)  :  Nos.  868,  816, 1330. 


426  BEMNANTS. 

power,  continuity,  and  various  genius.  It  is  in  them  yet.  And  it 
is  a  testimony  to  the  force  of  moral  training — for  it  was  that  which 
made  them  a  great  people.  But  when  by  the  fate  of  war  all  but 
Judaea  was  swept  away  captive,  it  seemed  to  them  that  a  mere  rem- 
nant or  fragment  was  left.  Then  they  went,  too ;  and  a  great 
many  of  their  people  perished  on  the  way.  Of  those  that  went 
to  Babylon,  a  great  many  were  morally  weak,  and  fell  into  the 
heathen  habits,  and  lost  the  integrity  of  their  fathers. 

Yet  there  was  always,  even  there,  not  a  large  number  but  a 
band  of  men  who  would  not  give  up  their  faith,  and  who  clung  to 
each  other.  They  were  a  remnant,  though  they  were  in  captivity. 
And  by  and  by,  when  the  royal  heart  happened  to  be  benignant 
and  they  got  permission  to  return  to  their  land,  they  went  baclc,  a 
miserable  company  of  pilgrims,  a  few  hundreds  or  thousands  of 
people,  to  build  again  their  cities  and  villages — especially  to  re- 
build Jerusalem,  the  dearest,  the  most  precious  place  to  them  on 
earth.  They  were  but  a  remnant,  yet  they  were  full  of  courage, 
full  of  hope,  full  of  energy ;  though  so  many  exigencies  bad  met 
them  ;  though  they  had  gone  through  so  many  sharp  places ;  though 
so  many  times  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  about  to  have  their  nation- 
al life  absolutely  crushed  out.  And  this  remnant  which  was  left 
became  a  seed  planted  again  ;  and  the  nation  throve  afterward. 
And  so  that  term  remnant  became  a  very  striking  term.  It  was 
full  of  associations  connected  with  their  affections  and  their  national 
experiences.  And  when  you  turn  to  the  Old  Testament,  you  will 
find,  all  the  way  through,  reference  to  these  remnants. 

"  O  Lord!  save  thy  people,  the  remnant  of  Israel."  "  Pray  for  us  to  the 
Lord,  even  for  all  this  remnant  of  the  people,"  "  Lord,  wilt  thou  make  an 
end  of  the  remnant?"  "  Wilt  thou  make  a  full  eud  of  the  rcm,nant  of  Is- 
rael ?"  "  It  may  be  that  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts  will  be  gracious  unto  the 
remnant  of  Joseph."  "  Lift  up  thy  prayer  for  the  remnant  that  are  left." 
•'  A  remnant  shall  be  saved." 

I  could  quote  a  score  of  passages  not  dissimilar  to  these. 

What  is  a  remnant  ?  It  is  what  is  left  over  after  all  uses  have 
been  fulfilled.  In  manufacturing,  it  is  after  you  have  taken  every- 
thing that  is  good  and  useful,  and  left  just  as  little  as  you  can.  It 
is  the  clippings  and  the  parings  ;  the  core  and  the  skin  ;  the  edges, 
the  fringes  of  things ;  the  scraps ;  the  odds  and  ends.  With  a 
great  many  things,  the  renmants,  as  in  working  gold  and  silver, 
are  just  as  precious  as  any  other  part,  because  they  can  be  rc- 
smelted.  But  with  a  great  many  things  it  is  not  so.  It  is  not 
so  with  cloth.  It  is  not  so  w  ith  wood.  It  is  not  so  with  a  variety 
of  metallic  substances.  There  are  many  things  the  remnants  of 
which  are  comparatively  useless.     They  certainly  cannot  answer  the 


BJEMNANTS.  427 

purpose  which  was  served  by  the  great  body  to  which  they  bc' 
longed,  although  they  may  be  turned  aside  to  some  inferior  use,  or 
dropped  down  to  some  inferior  place. 

But  there  is  another  way  in  which  the  word  remnant  is  used  in 
ordinary  life.  It  may  be  applied  to  the  result,  the  final  condition  to 
which  things  come  by  long  usage.  It  sometimes  has  reference  to 
the  state  of  being  worn  out.  Thus  there  are  ships  that  are  mere 
hulks,  remnants,  because  they  have  gone  through  their  allotted 
period.  They  are  good  to  be  broken  up  for  firewood ;  or,  it  may 
be  that  they  are  good  to  be  anchored  at  home  as  receiving-ships,  to 
make  miserable  men  more  miserable  in.  They  are  simply  remnants 
of  what  they  were.  There  are  machines  that  are  worn  out,  and  are 
scarcely  fit  to  be  melted  over  again,  and  are  not  fit  for  the  purposes 
for  which  they  were  builded,  and  are  thrown  into  a  corner,  or  under 
an  old  shed.  And  there  they  lie,  remnants  of  what  they  were.  So 
there  are  remnants  of  flocks,  and  remnants  of  herds — the  poor,  the 
scabby,  the  sick,  the  maimed,  the  good-for-nothing,  comparatively. 
There  are  also  remnants  of  harvests,  remnants  of  farming  utensils, 
and  remnants  of  wagons.  There  are  remnants  of  all  manner  of  things 
that  men  have  had  the  use  of,  but  that  have  passed  their  day,  and 
are,  comparatively  speaking,  of  no  value. 

Men  almost  alv/ays  think  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  use 
these  things  ;  but  it  never  comes.  They  accumulate  on  our  hands. 
Our  garrets  and  attics  are  full  of  good-for-somethings  which  have 
had  their  day.  Old  chairs  and  sofas  are  stowed  away  which  we 
think  we  shall  have  fixed  and  bring  down ;  but  we  never  do.  There 
are  bedsteads  laid  aside,  antique  and  queer.  There  are  all  sorts  of 
utensils  and  various  scraps  of  things  that  have  been  useful,  but  that 
are  no  longer  so.  They  are  too  good  to  throw  away,  and  they  are 
too  poor  to  keep.  They  hover  in  a  miserable  existence  half  way 
between  something  and  nothing. 

Is  there  no  parallel,  no  analogy,  between  remmants  in  goods, 
remnants  in  machines,  and  remnants  as  applying  to  man's  life  in 
society  ?  Oh  yes,  a  great  deal.  We  may  speak,  for  instance,  of  the 
remnant  of  an  army  after  a  great  defeat.  We  speak  of  the  rem- 
nants of  tribes ;  as,  for  instance,  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  when  for 
their  guilty  wickedness  they  had  been  well-nigh  exterminated.  We 
may  see  remnants  of  tribes  among  our  American  Indians.  There 
may  be  a  remnant  of  nations  ;  Poland  is  such  a  remnant. 

So  remnant  conveys,  in  all  cases,  an  idea  of  comparative  useful- 
ness in  human  life  and  human  organizations ;  or  else  an  idea  of  weak- 
ness and  danger ;  or  an  idea  of  liability  to  be  swept  away  as  rub- 
bish J  or  an  idea  of  being  too  much  reduced,  or  circumscribed,  or  cut 


428  EEMNANTS. 

into,  to  be  of  any  consequence.  In  this  sense  the  term  is  used  with 
reference  to  human  beings  as  well  as  with  reference  to  property. 

Let  us  now  apply  this  phrase  to  secular  life.  The  remnafit,  in 
general,  means  those  who  are  cast  aside  in  the  great  conflict  of 
human  life.  And  how  great  a  treasury  there  is  of  remnants — that 
is,  those  who  seem  to  have  got  through  their  function  long  before 
they  have  finished  their  life  !  How  many  young  there  are  who  are 
good  for  nothing !  How  many  grown  people  there  are  who  seem  to 
have  got  through  their  period  of  usefulness,  though  they  are  not 
midway  in  life.  There  are  many  who  are  remnants  by  reason  of 
their  breaking  down  in  health.  There  is  for  them  no  more  vigor ;  no 
more  elasticity  of  spirit ;  no  more  enterprise ;  no  more  power  to  drive 
through  projected  plans.  They  are  not  able  to  go  out  of  the  har- 
bor.    Tiiey  are  not  sea-worthy. 

Everybody  that  is  sick  is  not  a  remnant  necessarily,  in  any  pain- 
ful sense  of  the  term.  A  man  may  be,  on  the  other  hand,  a  greater 
blessing  when  he  is  sick  than  when  he  is  well.  God's  angels  do  not 
always  appear  when  we  are  in  the  full  flush  of  physical  health. 

Where  sickness  is  not  our  own  fault ;  where  it  does  not  come  as 
a  testimony  to  our  crimes ;  where  it  is  the  sickness  of  one  like 
Florence  Nightingale,  who  lingers  through  months  and  through 
years,  with  hardly  vitality  enough  to  hold  soul  and  body  together, 
having  worn  out  her  noble  life  in  the  service  of  humanity,  we  should 
never  apply  the  term  remnant  in  the  unfavorable  sense.  Where 
in  the  household  the  child  is  passing  quietly  and  steadily  away,  how 
often  is  the  sick  room  the  joy  and  the  peace  of  the  whole  house  ! 
How  often  are  the  venerable  and  the  enfeebled  the  richest,  although 
their  life  is  over,  and  they  are  waiting  for  the  last  summons !  A 
person  may  be  broken  down  in  health,  and  yet  his  counsel  and  ex- 
ample may  be  unspeakably  beneficial.  It  is  possible  for  men  to  do 
their  life-work  by  their  activity ;  but  there  are  some  men  who,  hav- 
ino-  done  their  life-work,  seem  to  be  ordained  of  God  to  stand  still 
and  shine.  They  are  at  peace  with  God.  Their  nature  is  harmonized. 
They  are  full  of  benignity  toward  their  fellow-men.  And  oftentimes 
the  two  leaves  of  the  gate  of  heaven  in  the  household,  are  the  old 
arm-chair  and  the  cradle.  Both  the  child  and  the  aged  person  are 
helpless  ;  but,  though  neither  of  them  can  do  anything,  and  they 
have  to  be  helped  every  day,  and  every  hour  of  every  day,  yet  they 
may  be  blessings  of  joy  and  peace  in  the  household.  Heaven's 
richest  gifts  may  descend  upon  the  other  members  of  the  family 
through  their  example  or  mediation. 

There  may  be  remnants  from  otlier  causes  :  as  where  men  have 
spent  their  forces  as  a  fool  spends  his  patrimony  ;  as  where  men 


SUMNAI^TS.  429 

have  hastily  run  throiigh,  foi  their  selfish  gratification,  the  capital 
of  life  ;  as  where  one  has  gained  nothing  worth  gaining,  and  lost  all 
that  was  worth  keeping,  and  is  disgraced  in  body  and  mind,  and 
thrown  out  for  others'  sustenance.  These  are  remnants  with  a 
vengeance.  How  many  there  are  of  them  !  Society  is  full  of  them. 
They  are  here  and  there  and  everywhere. 

Many  are  remnants  in  life  from  the  loss  of  their  property.  There 
are  men  who  begin  well,  and  have  a  certain  force  up  to  mid-life,  but 
who  then  in  a  convulsion,  owing  to  some  mistake,  or  by  a  process 
of  slow  decline,  become  bankrupt  ;  and  the  remainder  of  whose  life 
is  as  naught.  They  are  not  unvirtuous,  frequently,  but  are  mild 
and  excellent  people  ;  yet  the  rest  of  their  life  is  spent  in  feeble  and 
inefiectual  endeavors  to  reinstate  themselves.  And  from  year  to 
year  they  have  less  and  less  power  ;  from  year  to  year  there  is  less 
and  less  substance  to  them ;  from  year  to  year  they  are  less  and  less 
able  to  lean  on  themselves,  and  they  lean  heavier  and  heavier  on 
others.  And  before  they  are  sixty  years  of  age  they  are  absolutely 
dependent,  requiring  perpetually  to  be  upheld.  There  are  good 
people,  kind  people,  people  not  bad  in  any  sense  of  the  term,  who 
are  utterly  helpless.     How  full  the  world  is  of  them  1 

It  is  an  old  proverb,  that  "  it  is  hard  to  make  an  empty  bag  stand 
straight"  ;  and  there  is  nothing  so  feeble  as  people  who  have  lost  all 
poAver  to  take  care  of  themselves.     They  are  often  spoken  of  as  if 
their  feebleness  was  not  itself  a  misfortune  ;  as  if  the  loss,  by  the 
processes  of  life,  of  the  vim  on  which  largely  depends  their  physical 
organization,  was  not  a  part  of  their  troubles.    Did  you  never  see 
a  great,  strong,  burly  man,  full  of  health,  full  of  blood,  with  a  big 
heart,  and  good  digestion,  making  bones  like  flint  and  muscles  like 
steel  wire  ;  did  you  never -see  a  man  full  of  fire  and  indomitable 
energy,  made,  as  it  were,  out  of  leather  and  iron — did  you  never  see 
Buch  a  man  look  with  pity  and  contempt  on  these  miserable,  shift- 
less, ne'er-do-wells,  and  say,  "  Why  do  not  they  do  as  I  do  ?     Why 
did  not  the  Lord  keep  them  as  he  made  them  ?"     Men  with  superior 
prerogatives  and  gifts  are  apt  to  domineer  over  others  that  are  un- 
fortunate.    And  it  is  those  who  have  the  power  to  plan  and  execute 
that  we  admire.  We  meet  these  healthy  robust  menon  the  street,  we 
do  business  with  them,  and  we  come  to  respect  them  because  of 
their  energy  and  executivencss.  It  is  the  tool  which  cuts  that  we  pre- 
fer and  wish  to  keep  ;  and  the  tool  that  loses  its  edge  the  quickest 
we  throw  away  first.     And  we  come  to  use  men  as  tools.     It  is  the 
man  that  cuts  and  has  the  enduring  edge,  on   whom  we  bestow  the 
highest  commendation.     'SVe  praise  the  strong  and  prosjierous,  and 
pity  the  weak  and  feeble. 


430  SEMI^ANTS. 

When  a  man  is,  by  misfortunes  of  business,  brought  to  &  stand- 
still, and  thrown  out  of  the  whirl  of  creative  industry  it  is  possible 
that  he  will  become  merely  a  fragment,  a  remnant  ;  but  if  he  be 
largely  endowed,  if  there  be  something  to  his  manhood,  he  will 
not. 

There  is  a  fish  called  a  sculpin.  Nine-tenths  of  it  are  mouth,  and 
one-tenth  body,  as  I  recollect  it  when  a  boy.  Its  chief  business,  ap- 
parently, consists  in  eating  everything.  And  after  it  has  eaten, 
nothing  comes  of  it.  It  has  a  big  tail,  to  propel  itself  with,  a  big 
head,  a  big  mouth,  and  a  very  active  stomach  with  which  to  do  the 
work  of  digestion  quickly.     It  is  a  do-nothing,  gormandizing  fish. 

There  are  many  men  who  are  said  to  have  the  power  of  making 
wealth.  They  have.  And  they  are  sculpin  men.  They  have  an 
enormous  maw,  which  they  open  and  shut  quick  and  often,  devour- 
ing all  that  comes  in  their  way.  Nobody  can  surpass  them  in 
acquiring  property.  But  what  purpose  does  this  wealth  serve  ?  Do 
they  use  it  as  a  means  for  benefiting  society  ?  Is  it  employed  as  a 
sword  with  which  to  defend  the  weak  ?  Is  it  an  architect  that 
builds  ?  Is  it  a  seed-sower  that  distributes  ?  Or,  is  this  quality 
merely  the  capacity  to  take  in — to  ingurgitate,  ingurgitate,  ingurgi- 
tate ?  If  so,  then  when  misfortune  comes,  and  a  man  loses  all  his 
wealth,  what  is  left  of  him  ?  Nothing — literally  nothing.  And  you 
shall  find  that  while  some  men,  being  bankrupt,  lose  almost  nothing, 
other  men,  going  into  bankruptcy,  come  out  with  nothing.  There  is 
very  little  manhood  in  them  aside  from  this  peculiar  genius  or  talent 
to  amass  property.  They  are  not  fertile  in  ideas.  They  are  not 
richly  endowed  with  sentiment.  They  are  not  distributors  of  happi- 
ness. They  are  not  even  reflectors  of  happiness.  They  certainly 
are  not  creators  of  it.  They  have  very  little  power  among  men.  As 
organizers  of  wealth  they  have  some  power,  but  not  as  organizers 
of  thoughts  and  purposes.  And  when  they  are  stripped  of  their 
property  they  become,  most  emphatically,  remnants. 

When  one  of  a  great  nature  is  clothed  in  wealth,  he  is  certainly 
more  powerful ;  but  if  the  raiment  of  wealth  be  taken  from  him,  he 
is  not  less.     He  still  has  a  great  nature. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  (though  there  have  been  disputes  among 
archaeologists  on  the  subject)  that  the  Greeks  colored  and  gilded  the 
statues  which  adorned  their  temples.  And  undoubtedly  those  stat- 
ues were  more  magnificent  for  being  colored  and  gilded.  But  now 
that  time  has  rubbed  off"  the  paint,  and  they  are  without  a  particle 
of  embellishment,  and  are  simple  marble  statues,  they  are  exquis- 
ite still. 

That  is  the  case  with  a  man  whose  force  lies  in  his  essential  good- 


EEMNANTS.  431 

ness  and  real  manliness.  Wealth  may  make  him  more  beautiful ;  but 
strip  him  of  wealth,  and  he  does  not  lose  anything.  Tne  man  is  there 
yet.  No  man  can  he  called  a  remnant,  though  he  be  thrown  out  of 
life,  if  he  retain  in  him  the  essential  power  of  true  manhood.  But, 
oh !  how  many  there  have  been  who,  when  they  lost  their  wealth, 
lost  everything;  and  now  chatter  and  talk,  mostly  repining.  It  was 
not  always  so,  they  say.  They  have  seen  better  days.  They  re- 
member the  time  when  they  had  as  much  as  the  greatest;  but  they 
have  lost  it  all.  And  since  that  was  all  they  bad,  there  is  notliino- 
left.     Therefore  they  are  remnants. 

How  many  men  are  there  who  are  thrown  out  of  life  from  dis- 
couragements !  They  discover  mistakes  in  their  habits  when  it  is 
too  late  to  change  them.  I  am  always  sorry  to  see  anybody  give 
up.  I  do  not  know  that  when  a  man  fails  at  fifty  or  sixty  years  of 
age  he  can  succeed  again  in  the  same  path  in  which  he  formerly  suc- 
ceeded ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  no  man,  in  any  circumstances,  should 
say,  in  the  spirit  of  discouragement,  "  It  is  no  use  for  me  to  put 
forth  exertion  any  longer."  Just  so  long  as  a  man  has  life  and 
power  to  move  he  ought  to  keep  laboring  in  some  proper  vocation, 
with  some  suitable  ambition,  and  trust  in  divhie  providence.  Yet 
how  many  persons  there  are  in  life  who  have  reasonably  good  char- 
acter and  morals,  but  who  are  without  any  particular  force,  and  who, 
after  fighting  battles  here  and  there,  at  last  give  up  in  despair  ! 

I  sat  in  the  window  of  my  cottage  in  November,  after  the  leaves 
had  began  to  fall  to  the  ground,  and  saw  the  wind  deal  with 
them.  In  the  summer  when  the  wind  blew  the  leaves  sang.  But 
the  time  came  when  they  had  lost  their  hold  on  the  tree  and  dropped. 
And  now,  when  the  wind  blew,  the  leaves  no  longer  made  melody 
in  their  motion.  Before,  when  the  wind  came,  they  hung  sweet  and 
succulent  and  green  on  the  tree,  but  now  they  whirled  in  wreaths 
past  the  house,  some  falling  into  a  little  depression;  some  nestling 
by  the  side  of  the  fence ;  some  falling  under  a  bank ;  some  along  the 
hedge.  Brown,  sapless,  withered  leaves,  they  were,  good  for  noth- 
ing except  to  make  soil  for  another  year. 

I  have  seen  a  great  many  men  in  life  that  were  wind-blown ;  and 
they  held  on  to  the  stalk  and  the  branch  ;  and  all  the  wind  could  do 
was  to  make  them  sing ;  but  now  I  see  that  they  are  broken  off  from 
the  tree.  It  is  November  with  them  ;  and  the  wind  catches  them 
and  whirls  them  away,  and  some  land  in  poor-houses,  and  some  in 
hospitals,  and  some  in  private  dwellings,  where  they  pick  uj)  chips, 
or  do  some  other  inferior  service.  They  are  remnants  of  life.  And  it 
is  a  very  great  sadness. 

There  is  one  thing  that  will  not  bear  looking  into,  unless  a  man 
has  a  heart  of  philosophy,  (which  is  a  heart  of  stone ;)  and  that  is 


432  BEMNANTS. 

human  life.  You  can  look  at  the  condition  of  men ;  at  the  question  of 
joy  or  unjoyfulness ;  at  the  subject  of  prosperity,  or  want  of  prosper- 
ity ;  you  can  look  from  house  to  house,  in  your  own  circle,  perhaps, 
and  among  your  own  set,  where  everything  is  bright  and  cheerful, 
Avithout  having  your  feelings  shocked  or  hurt.  But  go  down  among 
those  that  are  poor  and  unfortunate  and  cast  out ;  see  how  full  life 
is  of  broken-down  men,  and  discouraged  men,  and  unprosperous 
men ;  go  down,  and  down,  and  down,  and  still  down  to  the  bottom, 
and  tell  me  if  it  is  not  sad.  When  a  man's  heart  is  moved  with  love 
for  his  fellows ;  when  he  counts  every  man  his  brother ;  when  he 
looks  at  everything  in  the  light  of  Christian  charity,  the  saddest 
thing  to  look  into  is  the  structure  of  the  lower  half  of  human  society; 
not  that  part  where  men  are  all  like  germs  that  point  upward,  and 
break  through,  and  find  the  sun,  and  blossom ;  but  that  other  part, 
where  men  are  going  down  from  the  top  toward  the  bottom,  where 
the  remnants  are.  Some  portions  of  society  are  more  than  knee-deep, 
are  wec^-deep,  with  mere  shattered  remnants  of  men. 

What  vast  multitudes  of  men  there  are  who  add  nothing  either 
to  the  moral,  the  social,  or  the  material  forces  of  society  !  They 
consume  continually,  but  contribute  nothing.  What  numbers  of 
men  there  are  in  regard  to  whom  society  would  feel  itself  benefitted 
if  they  were  dead,  and  it  was  rid  of  them  ! 

It  is  not  all  the  no-workers  that  society  can  afibrd  to  lose.  Nei- 
ther is  it  all  the  weak  that  society  can  afford  to  lose.  The  weakest 
things  in  the  world  are  the  most  precious — the  children.  The  joy 
of  the  house,  the  comfort  of  the  heart,  the  music  of  life,  the  very 
prophet  to  us,  is  the  child. 

"Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Children  are  God's  messengers  to  us.  They  are  the  blossoms  of 
human  life.  We  could  not  spare  them,  babes  though  they  be.  They 
do  not  earn  anything.  They  do  not  know  how  to  sing  or  frolic.  We 
could  not  spare  even  the  new-born  babe — the  babe  of  a  week.  It  is 
in  every  way  crude.  It  is  utterly  unreciprocating.  It  is  a  mere 
germ-point,  waiting  for  food,  in  our  arms.  And  yet,  how  rich  we 
are  !  How  rich  are  our  homes !  And  how  it  stirs,  with  its  magnet- 
ism, every  thought  and  feeling  of  the  sensitive  soul,  and  brings  near 
the  other  life,  and  lifts  us  up,  every  day,  in  hymns  and  prayers  and 
thankso^iving  to  God!  How  much  we  have  to  thank  God  for  in  the 
child !  and  yet  how  little,  so  far  as  the  present  value  of  the  child 
is  concerned ! 

It  is  not  the  weak  that  cumber  society ;  and  yet  society  is  like  a 
ship  that  is  overloaded  with  trash.  It  is  weighed  down  with  men 
who  are  good  for  nothing — men  who,  instead  of  adding  to  the  hap- 


BEMNAKTS.  433 

piness  of  other  people,  more  or  less  absorb  tbe  happiness  of  others. 
It  is  a  sorrowful  thing  to  think  of,  that  when  some  fellow-creatures 
die,  other  people  breathe  freer. 

For  their  salces,  I  have  been  glad  that  some  persons  died.  When 
one  must  go,  I  have  prayed,  "  Let  the  struggle  be  cut  short,  O  God 
of  mercy !  and  let  them  fly  away."  But  there  are  many  others  Avhom 
society  would  fain  have  taken  away  for  its  own  sake.  They  are 
useless  to  themselves  and  to  others.  They  are  in  the  way.  Nobody 
wants  them.  They  are  trash.  They  are  a  nuisance.  When  they 
die,  people  feel  a  gladness  that  they  are  gone  which  decency  will 
not  allow  them  to  express. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  that  anybody  should  live  in  this  world  whom 
nobody  wants  to  follow  to  the  grave.  It  is  a  sad  thing  for  me  to  go 
to  Greenwood  and  walk  through  the  strangers'  burying-ground.  It 
is  a  sad  thing  for  one  to  die  and  have  nobody  think  about  him  after- 
ward, except  to  thank  God  that  he  is  out  of  the  way.  It  is  sad  to 
witness  the  burying  of  such  a  one,  and  see  no  mourning  and  sympa- 
thizing group  standing  by,  and  seeing  the  workmen  unfeelingly 
pitch  the  clods  upon  the  coffin,  and  hurriedly  fill  up  the  grave,  ap- 
parently with  no  more  thought  or  feeling  than  if  it  had  not  been  a 
human  being. 

But  if  it  be  a  child  of  respectable  or  wealthy  parents,  the  grave 
is  surrounded  by  a  large  company  of  relatives  and  friends,  assembled 
to  pay  their  last  respects  to  the  dead.  And  how  gently  is  the  coffin 
lowered  to  its  place  !  How  do  the  men  regard  the  feelings  of  the 
bereaved  ones  !  How  careful  are  they  to  prevent  the  falling  of 
stones  harshly  upon  the  lid !  Everything  is  done  in  a  decorous  and 
sympathetic  manner,  so  that  nothing  shall  wound  the  afflicted  ears 
or  eyes. 

It  is  an  awful  thing  for  a  man  to  go  out  of  life  uncared  for,  or 
followed  by  the  rejoicings  of  those  who  have  long  wished  to  be  rid 
of  him.  It  is  an  awful  thing  for  a  man  to  have  lived  so  that  he 
goes  out  of  life  unhonored  and  unregretted.  There  is  an  inhumanity 
in  it.  There  is  something  in  it  which  touches  my  soul  to  the  very 
quick. 

And  yet,  I  cannot  deny  that  there  are  hundreds,  yes,  thousands 
of  persons,  in  this  very  city  of  Brooklyn  (and  I  suppose  many  of 
them  have  walked  by  this  house,  and  looked  in  at  this  door)  who,  if 
they  were  to  die  and  be  buried  to-morrow,  would  not  have  a  tear 
shed  for  them,  and  would  leave  the  community  better  off"  for  their 
going.  What  kind  of  a  life  is  that,  brethren,  lived  by  a  person 
who  can  better  be  spared  from  society  than  retained  in  it  ?  What 
kind  of  a  result  is  it  of  all  the  ministrations  which  are  instituted 


434  EEMNANTS. 

for  his  benefit,  and  all  the  advantages  for  growth  and  improvement 
Avhich  are  showered  upon  him  from  every  direction  ?  Is  there  any- 
thing more  sad  than  to  see  a  man  enjoy  the  plenitude  of  God's 
mercy  in  this  world,  and  then  die  worse  than  the  lower  animals 
which  have  no  such  mental  and  moral  endowments  as  he  possesses  ? 

Now,  in  regard  to  these  remnants  that  go  away  from  among  us, 
there  is  this  cheering  thought,  that  though  they  have  made  a  total 
wreck  of  their  life  here,  it  may,  at  least,  have  proved  a  seed. 

I  am  not  sorry  when  my  corn  is  cut  down  in  autumn.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  crops.  There  is  no  more  pleasing  sight  in 
the  world,  I  think,  than  a  field  of  Indian  maize.  Yet,  when  it  be- 
gins to  wither,  to  shrink  up,  and  the  wind  makes  harsh  whistlings 
through  it,  I  do  not  feel  badly.  Why  ?  Because  the  ear  is  there, 
and  it  is  ripe,  and  I  have  my  gi-ain.  And  if  I  want  to,  I  can  plant 
it  again  the  next  spring,  and  have  another  harvest  the  next  autumn. 

And  when  a  man  is  all  withered  and  shrunk,  and  dies  out  of  the 
refuse  heap  of  life,  if  I  am  sure  that  the  corn  is  in  him,  and  that  in 
the  other  life  it  will  be  planted  again,  and  will  spring  up,  and  grow 
and  ripen,  then  there  is  no  occasion  for  me  to  feel  badly.  And  I  fain 
would  hope  that  it  is  so  with  a  great  many. 

I  cannot  bear  to  think  that  the  poor,  miserable,  unenlightened 
slaves,  that  groped  in  darkness  on  the  plantation,  knew  almost 
nothing  and  were  not  permitted  to  learn  anything,  lived  a  life  of 
toil  like  beasts  and  crept  to  their  hovel  at  night  scarcely  able  to  get 
there,  and  were  dragged  out  again  early  in  the  morning,  until  at  last 
they  died — I  cannot  bear  to  think  that  they  never  have  another 
chance.  I  believe  they  do  have  a  better  chance  than  they  had  here, 
cursed,  as  they  were,  with  a  human  master.  If  here  men  are  chil- 
dren of  ignorance,  and  if  they  have  had  no  opportunity  for  growth 
in  manhood  on  earth,  I  fain  would  believe  that  God  will  have  some 
remedial  plan  of  mercy  for  them ;  but  when  a  man  has  lived  in  the 
full  blaze  of  Gospel  light,  and  has  thrown  away  every  opportunity 
for  the  development  of  his  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve there  is  any  new  chance  for  him  He  has  had  his  chance,  and 
has  not  improved  it. 

It  matters  not  that  a  man  has  had  any  amount  of  misfortune 
here,  if,  once  escaping  from  this  life,  he  lands  bravely  and  safely 
and  strongly  on  the  shore  of  immortality,  and  is  a  man  there  in 
Christ  Jesus.  What  do  you  suppose  a  ransomed  soul  in  the  spirit- 
world  cares  for  all  the  winds  that  once  blew  upon  him  on  earth? 
Blessed  is  it  to  become  a  wreck,  if  angels  are  the  wreckers,  and  you 
are  gathered  up  into  life  and  immortality ! 

Those  of  you  who  are  familiar  with  Western  scenery,  know  that 


EUMNANTS.  435 

you  can  ride  tlirougli  a  long  forest,  and  then  come  to  a  clearing. 
And  while  there  will  he  an  orchard  here,  there  will  be  a  belt  of 
forest  around  the  little  square  opening  ;  and  there  will  stard  in  the 
midst  of  it  gaunt,  branchless,  girdled  trees.  The  settler  takes  his  ax, 
at  the  right  period  of  the  year,  and  goes  rOund  and  chops,  just  above 
the  swell  of  the  roots,  a  ring  which  stops  the  flow  of  the  sap.  The 
tree  does  not  fall  down  immediately.  During  the  first  year  it  holds 
its  branches  and  leaves.  But  there  is  no  return  of  the  leaf  to  it. 
Then  the  weather  beats  upon  it.  And  every  successive  year  it  stands 
with  fewer  and  fewer  branches.  And  at  last  some  morning,  after  a 
great  storm,  it  lies  its  whole  length  upon  the  ground. 

Brethren,  I  see  many  men  standing  like  trees,  branchless  and 
gaunt  in  a  clearing,  girdled  apparently.  They  are  waiting  for  their 
overthrow.  And  it  grieves  ray  heart  to  see  great  natures,  vast 
trunks,  towering  up,  spreading  abroad  their  branches,  fit  to  have 
been  pillars  in  the  Temple  of  God,  but  girdled,  and  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  in  sins. 

Oh,  that  from  among  such  there  might  be  a  remnant  that  yet 
should  be  saved  !  Oh,  that  there  might  be  among  those  who  have 
lived  through  twenty  years  under  my  ministry  here,  and  who  have 
been  good  friends  and  neighbors,  and  whose  lives  have  been  rich, 
often,  with  special  oftices  of  kindness,  would  treat  my  Saviour  as 
well  as  they  treat  me  ! 

How  piteous  it  is  to  see  the  remnants  of  a  family  !  The  father 
and  the  mother  lived  Christian  lives,  and  have  gone  to  heaven.  One 
by  one  the  brothers  and  sisters  were  gathered  into  the  fold  of 
Christ.  But  for  some  reason  one  single  one  stood  out.  Perhaps  he 
became  wedded  to  the  world.  Perhaps  he  got  into  bad  company 
Perhaps  he  maintained  outward  morality.  At  any  rate,  he  seems, 
from  one  or  another  cause,  to  have  resisted  every  religious  in- 
.  fluence. 

Is  there  not  in  my  hearing  some  person  who  is  saying,  "  That  is 
I.  Every  member  of  my  father's  family  except  me  is  a  Chris- 
tian" ?  Is  there  not  some  one  present  who  says,  "  My  brothers  and. 
sisters  Jiave  died  and  gone  to  heaven ;  but  I  am  not  on  the  same  road 
which  they  traveled"  ?  Are  there  not  persons  here  who  are  the  last 
remnants  of  glorious  households,  and  who  are  not  saved  ?  Oh !  shall 
not  even  these  remnants  be  gathered  in  ? 

Go  back  and  think  of  the  boyhood  circle  that  used  to  play  base- 
ball with  you  on  the  village  green  1  One  became  a  drunkard  ; 
another  went  to  prison  ;  another  made  shipwreck  of  himself  in  busi- 
ness ;  another  went  to  the  city  and  prospered.  They  are  all  gone,  but 
you  and  two  or  three  others  who  are  left,  and  are  remnants.    Where 


436  BIJMNANTS. 

I 

are  the  boys  that  used  to  sit  in  the  same  class  with  you  ?  I  count  up 
my  school-fellows  every  year  ;  and  every  year  it  takes  less  figures. 
The  numbers  are  running  thin. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  scenes  that  I  recollect  took  place 
right  here.  An  old  man,  during  my  father's  lifetime,  came  trembling 
up  to  the  platform,  and  said  to  me,  "  Your  father  and  I  were  class- 
mates, and  beside  him  and  me  there  is  but  one  of  our  class  left,  and 
he  is  dying.  When  your  father  dies,  let  me  know,  will  you  ?  for  I 
shall  be  the  only  one  remaining."  He  took  it  for  granted  that  he 
would  outlive  my  father.  He  did  ;  but  now  he  is  gone,  too.  There 
is  not  even  a  remnant  of  that  class.  They  have  all  passed  away. 
And  how  many  circles  your  mind  forms  when  you  come  to  think  of 
them,  of  which  but  a  remnant — one  or  two,  are  left  ! 

Now,  the  question  which  it  seems  to  me  every  man  should  put  to 
himself,  is  this  :  "  Is  the  circle  to  which  I  belong  a  divided  circle  ? 
Are  a  part  here,  and  a  part  there  ?"  Have  you  the  same  hope 
that  sustained  the  others  in  dying.  Have  you  the  same  triumphant 
faith  which  they  had  ?  They  have  all  gone,  you  are  the  last,  and 
you  must  soon  follow  them  ;  and  you  have  no  comfort,  and  no  joy, 
and  no  hope.  They  all  trod  a  triumphant  way  which  you  never  put 
your  foot  into.     They  have  gone  before,  and  you  are  not  following. 

It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  be  a  remnant — to  be  the  last  child  in  a 
family — and  not  go  to  heaven  where  the  rest  have  gone  ;  or  to  be 
the  last  member  of  a  circle  of  Christians,  and  not  to  be  a  Christian. 
It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  be  the  only  one  left  of  a  company,  and 
be  lingering  and  waiting,  soon  to  go,  they  saved,  and  you  lost. 

There  are  many  in  every  congregation,  who,  looking  upon  them 
from  the  point  of  congregational  association,  are  but  remnants.  In 
every  prominent  congregation,  there  are  those  who  live  through  a 
vast  amount  of  influence,  seeming  to  be  unchanged. 

I  remember  very  well  that  toward  the  close  of  my  pastorate  in 
Indiana,  I  sat  one  Sabbath  day  and  looked  over  the  congregation. 
It  was  a  small  one.  Before  I  came  here,  I  never  preached  to  a  con- 
gregation that  averaged  more  than  two  hundred,  or  two  hundred 
and  fifty.  I  could  count  all  the  men  in  the  congregation  who  were 
not  hopefully  Christian.  There  were  about  fifteen.  To  my  certain 
knowledge,  they  had  gone  through  four  or  five  revivals  of  religion 
during  my  day,  there  ;  and  I  had  labored  with  them  as  a  brother 
would  with  a  brother.  I  had  plied  them,  and  preached  at  them,  and 
prayed  for  them,  and  approached  them  on  every  side,  and  made  use 
of  every  means  at  my  command,  and  studied  them,  and  at  times 
they  seemed  about  to  come  into  the  kingdom  ;  yet  they  remain- 
ed as  they  were,  unregenerated.     I  knew  the  after  history  of  about 


BEMNANTS.  437 

one  half  of  them,  and  I  think  that  none  of  them  ever  became  Chris- 
tians. A  considerable  proportion  of  them  died  in  a  way  which  precludes 
the  hope  of  any  spiritual  change.  And  those  that  were  left  were 
the  remnant  of  that  congregation.  Everything,  apparently,  had 
been  used.  The  material  had  been  wrought  up  close.  Here  were, 
so  to  speak,  the  clippings,  the  remains  that  were  unusable. 

In  every  congregation  that  has  been  sitting  under  the  ministra- 
tion of  the  sanctuary  for  any  considerable  time,  there  are  many  that 
must  be  called  remnants.  There  are  men  in  this  congregation — men 
to  whom  I  have  no  further  message ;  men  whose  understanding  I 
know  I  have  reached  over  and  over  again,  but  whose  susceptibilities 
have  not  been  awakened,  and  who  have  been  able  to  resist  moral 
influence,  to  maintain  their  life  of  this  world,  and  keep  away  from 
the  love  of  God,  and  live  for  time,  and  not  for  eternity.  All  that 
conversation  could  do,  and  all  that  preaching  could  do,  and  all  that 
divine  influence  in  the  outpouring  of  God's  spirit  could  do,  seems  to 
have  been  in  vain  as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  and  there  they  stand. 

This  leads  me  to  the  single  other  view  that  I  shall  take  of  this  sub- 
ject; and  that  is  of  the  remnant  of  life,  looked  at  from  a  religious 
standpoint.  It  may  well  be  applied  with  very  great  seriousness  and 
very  great  profitableness  in  this  direction.  We  are  responsible  to 
God  for  our  talents,  for  our  character,  and  for  our  conduct,  here  be- 
low; and  there  are  a  great  many  persons  who  have  run  through 
their  career  of  evil  on  earth,  until  their  end  is  near,  and  there  is  but 
a  renmant  left.  There  are  men  who  have  run  through  their  career 
of  drinking  until  they  are  at  the  very  last  period  of  their  life.  There 
are  a  great  many  who  have  run  through  their  career  of  sensual  in- 
dulgence until  their  strength  is  gone,  and  their  stamina  is  taken  out 
of  them,  and  they  have  come  to  their  last  period  of  earthly  exist- 
ence. There  are  a  great  many  who  have  by  various  infractions  of 
known  laws,  by  pushing  animal  excess  to  the  uttermost  extreme, 
wasted  their  life,  and  come  to  the  last  part  of  their  career.  In  all 
probability  they  cannot  live  five  years  more.  Many  of  them  will 
not  live  one  year.     With  some  it  is  a  question  of  months. 

Is  there  any  use  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  such  men  ?  Yes. 
A  man  may  have  sinned  against  every  organ  of  his  body ;  he  may 
have  sinned  against  the  laws  of  nature  (and  no  man  can  break  the 
laws  of  nature  and  not  break  the  moral  laws  of  the  universe) ;  he 
may  have  sinned  against  his  light  and  knowledge ;  and  he  may  have 
come  to  his  very  last  hours  ;  and  yet  there  is  hope  for  him.  There 
are  many  fearful  presumptions  against  him  ;  but,  after  all,  there  is 
hope  enough  to  justify  prayer  for  him,  and  efforts  to  save  him.  If 
there  is  a  person  in  this  congregation  who  thinks  he  is  such  a  one, 


438  ;  BEMNANTS. 

his  condition  justifies  prayer,  and  labor,  and  the  most  vehement 
urgency,  tliat  the  remnant  of  his  career  may  be  saved,  that  his 
last  hours  may  yet  be  redeemed,  and  that  a  faint  light  from  the  very 
closing  period  may  be  cast  back  upon  the  darkness  of  all  that  has 
gone  before. 

There  are  a  great  many  who  have  gone  through  prosperity  in 
this  world,  and  have  come  very  near  to  the  end  of  their  career. 
Their  life  has  not  been  marked  by  vice  ;  but  they  have  lived  for  the 
ordinary  aims  ;  for  the  pride  of  life  ;  for  the  events  of  time.  They 
have  had  their  will  in  wealth  and  influence  and  position  ;  they  have 
had  in  various  ways  all  that  heart  could  wish ;  and  they  have  gone 
through  early  life,  and  through  middle  life,  and  through  the  first 
years  of  age,  and  have  gone  clear  down  to  old  age,  without  God 
and  without  hope  in  the  world-  They  have  had  all  that  the  world 
could  give  them ;  or,  at  any  rate,  all  that  it  will  give  them ;  and 
everything  is  expended.  Their  years  are  all  that  remain  to  them ; 
and  these  are  few.  They  have  come  to  the  very  end  of  life.  You 
cannot  say  that  they  have  ever  committed  a  crime,  or  that  they 
have  ever  been  guilty  of  a  vice.  You  can  say  that  they  have  com- 
mitted many  mistakes  and  foibles ;  but  externally  they  have  been 
very  good  members  of  society.  Yet  to  that  great  spiritual  brother- 
hood, to  that  great  realm  of  life  whose  morality  is  higher  than  the 
functions  of  human  society,  they  have  not  been  faithful.  And  they 
are,  with  all  the  mercies  of  God  which  they  have  had  showered 
upon  them,  going  out  of  life  without  God,  without  gratitude,  with- 
out love,  without  hope,  almost  without  character  ;  and  there  is  but 
a  remnant  of  their  years  left  them. 

Sliall  that  remnant  be  thrown  away  ?  Having  thrown  their  first 
twenty  years  on  the  world  ;  having  thrown  on  the  world  twenty 
years  more,  and  five  or  ten  years  more,  they  have,  perhaps,  a  year 
or  two  left.  And  shall  that  perish  ?  Shall  that  be  thrown  away  ? 
Or,  shall  they  seize  this  last  lingering  period,  that  the  remnant  of 
their  time  may  be  saved  ? 

My  heart  is  turned  toward  the  remnants  to-night.  I  would  that 
by  the  spirit  of  God  I  might  reach  to  awaken  unusual  thoughts  and 
unusual  purposes  in  the  minds  of  many  who  are  left  over  from 
former  efibrts ;  who  have  resisted  all  prior  appeals  ;  who  have  stood 
out  against  God's  great  mercy  ;  who  have  been  going  wrong,  under 
the  dominion  of  pride,  and  selfishness,  and  vanity,  and  lust,  and  those 
appetites  and  passions  which  corrode  like  canker. 

I  pray  God,  by  his  good  Spirit,  to  send,  to-night,  an  arrow  home 
to  many  of  these  lingerers.  What  do  ye  here  now,  waiting  after  all 
are  gone,  unclothed  and  unprepared  to  meet  the  wrath  of  God's  laws 


EEMKAKTS.  439 

•which  you  have  hrolcen  in  their  core  and  nature  ?  Death  is  near,  it 
may  be,  with  uplifted  hand,  to  smite  you;  and  you  are  thouglitless 
aad  careless ! 

Oh,  remnant  of  the  household  !  oh,  remnant  of  the  congregation  ! 
oh,  remnant  of  men  !  in  the  last  moment,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
for  the  remnant  of  your  wasted  life,  there  is  an  opportunity  for  es- 
cape. Embrace  it.  Turn  to  God  and  live— here,  it  may  be  for  a 
moment,  but  there  forever  and  forever. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  are  gathered,  this  evening,  O  Lord  our  Father,  drawn  hither  by  con- 
scious want,  and  by  a  great  many  sweet  remembrances.  How  many  years 
have  we  come  hither  bearing  trouble,  bearing  a  sense  of  weakness,  and 
bearing  in  us  the  signs  of  death  !  How  many  times  liave  we  come  dark,  to 
find  It  light;  and  weakened,  to  find  that  strength  was  waiting  for  us  !  We 
have  seemed  shut  out  of  the  great  realm  of  prosperous  men,  and  our  way 
has  seemed  at  times  forlorn;  and  yet  we  have  been  restored  again  to  sym- 
pathy and  to  joyfulness.  How  often  have  we  come  up  here  sodden  iu  self- 
ishness, sordid  in  avarice,  and  with  the  world  all  resting  upon  us!  And 
here  we  have  beheld  in  the  light  of  thy  count  eiance  better  things  than  the 
abundance  of  this  world.  Hope  and  faith  and  joy  have  shone  in  our  faces ; 
and  we  have  felt  ourselves  rebuked,  and  have  gone  home  again  detirmiued 
that  while  we  were  diligent  in  business,  we  would  also  be  fervent  in  spirit, 
serving  the  Lord.  Thou  hast  broken  our  staff;  that  on  which  we  leaned  is 
gone  from  us;  we  have  been  cast  down  to  the  ground,  seemingly  over- 
thrown; and  yet  here  we  have  been  again  restored  to  strength,  and  have 
found  that  God  was  more  to  us  than  father  or  mother,  than  brother  or 
sister,  or  than  companion.  And  with  the  mystery  of  thy  secret  love,  with 
the  strange  work  which  thou  dost  perform,  hidden  in  the  soul,  thou  hn^t 
brought  us  again  to  comfort  and  joy.  And  if  we  were  to  rehearse  all  the 
moods  of  sorrow,  and  all  the  experiences  of  relief,  which  have  clustered 
about  this  place,  how  many  burdens  have  been  rolled  off!  how  many  hopes 
have  been  inspired!  how  many  tears  of  joy  have  taken  tVe  place  of  sorrow- 
ing tears!  how  our  life  has  been  enlarged,  reaching  forward  into  the  other! 
how  our  expectations  have  been  guided  I  The  night  would  not  suffice  us 
for  the  rehearsal  of  all  the  blessings  which  thou  hast  bestowed  upon  us. 

We  thank  thee,  O  Lord,  that  we  stand  alilie  in  the  midst  of  thy  mercies. 
We  are  in  a  wilderness  of  thy  goodness.  And  yet,  there  are  days  in  which 
the  earth  seems  barren  and  lifeless.  Thy  paths  drop  fatness,  and  that  we 
know  right  well;  and  yet  some  days  there  are  in  which  it  seems  to  us  as 
thougri  there  were  nothing  left  in  the  world  of  God. 

And  now,  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  yet  again  hear  the 
voice  of  suppliiation;  or,  better  than  that,  pray  for  us.  Grant  that  the 
Spirit  may  strive  in  us,  and  that  God  may  answer  the  yearning  Spiiit  lather 
than  our  petition.  For  we  know  not  what  to  pray  for  as  we  ought.  And 
the  Spirit  doth  mall  e  intercession  for  us  with  groauings  ttiat  cannot  be 
uttertid.    And  wilt  thou  look  within  us  and  see  what  we  need,  and  deal 


440  BEMN-ANTS. 

with  us  according  to  our  necessities.  Take  away  what  we  need  to  have 
taken  away ;  multiply  what  we  need  to  have  multiplied;  strengthen  in  us 
what  we  need  to  have  strengthened ;  augment  in  us  what  needs  to  be  aug- 
mented. Do  for  us  according  to  thine  insight  and  thine  infinite  love  and 
mercy,  and  not  according  to  our  foolish  and  imperfect  petitions.  How 
many  things  we  have  asked,  dear  Father,  the  giving  of  which  would  have 
been  our  ruin !  How  many  times  thy  No  hath  been  our  salvation !  How 
many  times  we  have  besought  thee  to  ward  off  things  which  must  needs 
come;  and  in  them  we  have  found  our  life  afterward.  And  even  those 
great  troubles  that  bruised  us,  yea,  cast  us  down,  and  left  us  for  dead  upon 
the  ground,  though  for  the  present  they  were  not  joyous,  but  grievous, 
afterward  wrought  out  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness. 

And  now  we  have  come  to  know  so  little  about  ourselves,  we  have  come 
to  have  such  a  sense  of  our  own  helplessness,  that  we  long  for  thy  wisdom 
rather  than  our  own.  Do  thou  for  us  the  things  that  are  necessary.  Give 
what  thou  wilt.  Take  away  what  thou  wilt.  Infinite  love  cannot  err.  Thy 
tenderness  surpasses  that  of  any  heart  but  thine.  According  to  thy  loving 
kindness  and  thy  tender  mercies  dwell  with  us. 

And  we  pray  that  every  heart  in  this  house  maybe  won  to  God,  and  that 
every  sinner  may  be  brought  back  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  his  soul, 
and  that  every  one  who  knows  the  light  may  make  it  known  to  those  who 
sit  in  darkness,  and  that  every  soul  that  is  fed  mny  carry  food  to  those  that 
are  hungry,  and  that  every  one  that  is  healed  may  succor  those  that  are 
ready  to  perish  in  sickness.  And  may  our  hearts  be  turned  one  toward 
another.  Grant  that  there  may  be  the  spirit  and  the  presence  of  God 
mightily  in  the  midst  of  this  congregation.  And  may  there  come  life  where 
there  is  death,  and  restoration  where  there  is  captivity,  and  liberty  where 
there  is  bondage.  Grant  that  thy  work  may  prevail  against  sin  and 
the  kingdom  of  Satan  and  darkness. 

And  we  pray  that  thy  power  may  be  felt  in  all  this  city,  and  the  great 
city  adjoining.  Bless  those  faithful  men  who  labor  for  the  promotion  of 
temperance,  and  those  who  labor  for  the  reformation  of  morals  in  every 
form.  Be  with  those  that  search  out  the  sick,  and  go  among  the  poor,  and 
visit  hospitals  and  jails ;  and  those  that  go  into  waste  places  and  highways 
and  byways.  May  they  themselves  be  filled  with  the  light  and  sweetness  of 
the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  they  shall  be  as  men  who  go  forth  from  the  gar- 
den, their  very  garments  bearing  the  perfume  of  its  flowers.  And  grant,  we 
pray  thee,  that  heaven,  though  it  seem  to  be  so  withdrawn  from  sight,  may 
much  of  it  shine  upon  man,  that  he  may  bring  forth  fruit.  Bless  the  earth. 
Hast  thou  forgotten  to  be  gracious,  O  God,  that  the  isles  wait  in  darkness 
go  long,  and  that  continents  are  brooded  with  night,  and  that  nations  are 
destroying  nations,  and  that  wrath  and  unmercifulness  and  hatred  do  can 
ker  the  human  soul?  Oh!  when  wilt  thou  bring  to  pass  the  promises  that 
have  hung  on  the  horizon  so  long,  as  the  Morning  Star  that  rose  not,  and  that 
yet,  blessed  be  God  !  sunk  not  away  ?  We  look  to  their  light.  We  pray  for 
the  coining  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  We  pray  for  the  final  glory  of  this 
earth;  for  the  augmentation  of  man;  for  the  development  of  society;  for 
the  purity,  and  peace,  and  prosperity,  and  gladness  that  shall  conae  when 
intelligence  shall  have  driven  ignorance  away,  and  true  faith  shall  have 
purged  the  earth  from  superstition,  and  when  love  shall  drive  selfishness 
and  cruelty  forth  never  to  come  back  again.  Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus, 
come  quickly.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  prau* 
evermore.    Ani^n. 


XXIII. 

The  New  Birth. 


THE  NEW  BIRTH. 


"Jesus  answered,  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  Except  a  man  be  bom 
of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is 
spirit.  Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  Ye  must  be  born  again." — John 
III.,  5-7. 


The  thing  meant  in  this  passage  was  a  great  truth — a  fact  of  the 
utmost  importance,  transcending  any  other  that  was  ever  made  known 
to  the  race.  It  was  the  annunciation  of  a  point  of  development 
which  is  to  the  last  degree  essestial.  But  the  form  of  utterance 
was  figurative.  Our  Saviour  was  speaking  to  one  of  the  rulers 
of  the  Jews — one  of  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrim — a  man  of 
great  moral  worth,  of  great  excellence  of  character,  apparently; 
but  he  hJid  been  brought  up,  as  Paul  was,  with  a  conscientious  and 
rigorous  adhesion  to  all  the  service  and  ceremony  and  ritual  of  the 
Jewish  Church. 

Baptism  was  a  part  of  the  Jewish  services.  Much  was  made  of 
it.  When  Nicodemus  presented  himself  to  our  Saviour,  it  was  all 
important  to  him,  as  Paul  declares  that  it  was  to  him.  It  was  the 
what-lack-I-yet  spirit.  He  came  as  a  man  who  had  made  great  at- 
tainments, but  who  was  willing,  if  there  was  anything  else,  to  find 
it  out,  and  add  it  to  his  stock. 

He  unquestionably  thought  he  was  an  eminent  man  in  goodness; 
but  if  there  was  in  Christ  a  polish  for  this  eminent  goodness,  he  would 
like  to  possess  that.  And  it  was  this  spirit  of  reliance  on  external 
ceremonies  that  was  rebuked  by  these  words,  which  have  been  much 
misinterpreted : 

"  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God."  j 

Men  have  joined  together  baptism  and  the  spiritual  change 
wrought  by  God.  It  amounted  substantially  to  the  authentication 
of  this  ordinance  of  baptism  on  the  part  of  our  Saviour,  with  no  less 
a  helpmeet  than  the  divine  influence.  There  was  baptism  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  other;  and  these  two  were  brouo-ht 
together. 

Sunday  Evening,   Jan.  29,  1871.     Lesson  :  Eph.   m.,  13-21.    HmNS  (Plymouth 
Collection) :  Nos.  813,  784,  854. 


444  THE  NE  W  BIBTH. 

At  first  sight,  it  looks  as  though  it  was  so ;  but  it  was  net.  Here 
was  a  man  who  came  to  the  Saviour  full  of  Sabbaths,  and  holy  clays, 
and  washings  of  hands,  and  baptisms ;  and  when  Christ  told  him  he 
must  be  born  of  water,  he  readily  assented  to  it.  That  was  just 
what  he  had  himself  believed.  But  when  Christ  went  on  to  say  tha<i 
the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  must  be  added,  a  new  truth  was  opened  to 
him. 

The  allusion  to  baptism  was  an  allusion  to  the  ground  on  which 
Nicodemus  already  stood,  and  was  not  an  authentication.  It  was 
but  a  historic  fact.  And  to  that  was  added  the  declaration  that, 
except  a  man,  over  and  above  that,  has  the  Holy  Spirit,  baptism  is 
useless.  To  those  who  are  without  this  regenerating  power,  baptism 
is  of  no  comfort,  and  has  no  authority. 

We  are  not  to  take  this  passage  in  its  narrow  and  local  interpre- 
tation. We  are  to  get  the  full  flavor  of  it  by  considering  it  as  a 
part  of  the  whole  grand  scheme  of  our  Saviour  in  his  earthly  minis- 
trations. As  a  teaching  of  Christ,  it  was  not  so  much  a  thing  new, 
as  it  was  a  thing  that  authenticated  and  gave  authority  to  many 
things  which  existed  before.  It  imparted  gi-eat  clearness  to  things 
which  were  already  obscurely  seen.  It  brought  together  in  groups 
things  which  had  been  previously  taught  in  a  scattered  way.  But 
the  substance  of  the  moral  truths  which  were  taught  by  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  had  before  been  taught  and  used  in  the  Jewish  Church. 
And  his  ministry,  so  far  as  mere  truth-telling  was  concerned,  was 
based  on  the  truths  which  had  already  been  revealed  by  the  old  dis- 
pensation. The  originality  of  Christianity,  as  it  is  called,  you  may 
search  for  in  vain.  The  truths  of  it  were  in  the  things  that  were 
taught  long  before  it  was  known.  Experience  revealed  the  notion 
to  man. 

But  there  was  something  distinctive  in  it.  There  was  something 
which  made  it  different  from  the  old  dispensation.  And  what  was 
that  ?  It  was  the  distinct  annunciation  of  Christ,  made  more  and 
more  emphatic  toward  the  close  of  his  life,  that  he  himself  stood  per- 
sonally to  the  race  in  the  place  of  God.  He  declared  that  men  must 
believe  in  him,  in  order  to  be  saved.  That  never  was  known  before. 
It  was  the  revelation  of  God — that  isjimraanuel.  It  was  the  dawn 
of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  He  assumed  that  he  was  himself  that 
very  divine  Spirit,  which  was  an  original  fact,  and  a  characteristic 
one.  But  the  other  fact,  and  the  one  which,  so  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, is  the  most  characteristic  in  the  new  dispensation,  was  that 
the  human  race,  through  him,  are  to  move  on  the  highest  spiritual 
level,  where  their  souls  shall  be  under  the  direct  control  of  the  Di- 
vine Spirit.     Such  I  believe  to  be  preeminently  the  genius  of  Chris- 


TEE  NEW  BIBTH.  445 

' 
tianity.  The  annunciation  was,  that  while,  before,  the  race  of  man 
had  been  living  in  the  flesh  and  to  the  flesh,  the  time  had  come 
when  there  should  be  the  lifting  up  of  men's  spiritual  nature,  the 
opening  of  the  whole  sphere  of  moral  faculty  in  man,  and  the  direct 
contact  of  it  with  the  Divine  Mind,  so  that  God  should,  as  it  were, 
interpenetrate  man,  and  with  his  thoughts  and  feelings  intersphere 
man's  thoughts  and  feelings,  in  the  new  life  to  be  develoi:)ed  on  the 
old  one.  That  is  to  say,  there  was  to  be  a  new  potency,  a  greater 
fruitfulness,  a  higher  education,  a  more  resplendent  development,  of 
the  higher  spiritual  nature  of  man.  That  whole  territory  which  be- 
fore had  been  but  occasionally  broken  into,  now  and  then  developing, 
in  some  single  instances,  a  prophet  here,  and  a  holy  man  there,  was 
to  be  enlightened  and  warmed  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  so  that  men  in 
ranks,  in  masses,  in  continuously  increasing  numbers,  and  by  and  by 
in  nations,  and  finally  as  the  whole  race,  should  be  brought  up  into 
the  glorious  light  and  liberty  and  power  of  the  sons  of  God. 

It  was  the  lifting  up  of  the  mind  of  man  from  its  lower  social 
and  animal  conditions  to  its  higher  spiritual  and  divinely-commun- 
ing condition,  that  characterized  the  teaching  of  Christ,  who  came 
with  authority  as  God  in  the  flesh,  to  announce  that  the  spiritual 
kingdom  had  come,  in  which  was  to  dwell  righteousness  ;  that  the 
time  had  come  when  men  were  to  enter  into  all  the  inspiration  of 
the  spirit  of  God;  that  the  time  had  come  when  men  were  to  be 
united  as  they  never  were  before ;  that  the  time  had  come  when  men, 
by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  should  have  a  power,  a  faith,  a 
hope,  and  a  love  such  as  they  had  never  before  experienced. 

These  being  the  teachings  of  Christ,  and  the  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  his  dispensation,  we  come  to  this  declaration  that  he  made 
to  Nicodemus,  which  was  not  a  local  and  special  teaching,  but  an 
annunciation  of  that  truth  which  characterized  the  whole  movement 
of  Christianity  as  developed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 

"  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God.    That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh." 

Here  is  reference  to  the  body,  and  all  that  part  of  the  mind  which 
was  ordained  to  take  care  of  the  body — its  appetites,  its  passions,  its 
pride,  its  selfishness,  its  faculties  in  their  perverted  forms — all  that 
lower  range  of  mental  powers,  which  work  from  the  flesh,  and  back 
to  the  flesh  again,  and  remain  in  the  lower  realm. 

"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh ;  and  that  which  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  is  spirit." 

There  is  to  be  a  resurrection,  above  these  lower  appetites  and 
passions.  There  is  to  be  a  higher  and  nobler  condition  than  that 
which  belongs  to  the  world.  And  the  time  for  that  has  come.  And 
Christ  declares  that  unless  a  man  lifts  himself  up  into  this  higher 


446  THE  NEW  BIRTH. 

realm,  lie  cannot  be  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  order  to  be  qualified 
to  enter  that  kingdom,  a  man's  heart  must  be  in  a  superior  state  of 
activity,  and  must  be  filled  with  high  and  divinely-inspired  senti- 
ments. 

That  was  the  teaching  of  Christ  to  Nicodemus,  Of  course  Nio- 
odemus  did  not  understand  it.  He  lost  the  meaning  of  it  by  literal- 
izing  it.  lie  marveled  and  stumbled ;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
he  did  marvel  and  stumble.  Men  cease  to  marvel  and  stumble  at 
the  doctrine  of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  human  soul  as  they  are 
developed  into  the  higher  spiritual  condition ;  but  men  who  continue 
to  live  under  the  full  influence  of  their  bodily  conditions,  character- 
istically do  it. 

The  faculties  which  serve  the  body  are  the  most  active  and  the 
most  productive  yet,  take  the  world  through.  Man  is  mightier  as 
an  animal  than  as  a  spiritual  being.  The  affections  are  developed 
more  in  their  lower  range  than  in  their  higher  sphere.  The  law  of 
life,  to  ordinary  men,  even  in  Christian  communities,  is  still  the  law 
of  animal  life,  or  of  the  very  lowest  forms  of  social  life.  The  race  is 
still  a  race  low  down.  Although  I  believe  there  are  more  persons 
enfranchised  into  spiritvial  life  now  than  at  any  former  period  of  the 
world,  yet,  when  you  look  at  the  race  comprehensively,  and  form 
any  just  estimate  of  it,  it  may  be  said,  almost  without  any  excep- 
tion, that  mankind  to-day  are  living  in  the  sphere  of  the  animal,  and 
but  a  very  little  way  up  toward  the  possible  in  manhood. 

So  that  if  there  ever  was  need  of  saying  that  man  must  be  born 
again  into  the  enlargement  and  exaltation  of  a  higher  sphere ;  if 
there  ever  was  a  time  when  men  needed  to  have  their  eyes  opened 
in  respect  to  the  necessity  of  such  a  birth,  it  is  just  now.  With  the 
wars  that  are  still  sounding  in  our  ears ;  with  the  misrule  that  Still 
prevails,  the  world  over ;  and  with  the  tendencies  of  public  senti- 
ment in  the  best  nations  of  the  earth,  who  shall  say  that  this  dis- 
closure is  not  needed  now  ?  Seeing  what  civilization  does,  who  shall 
say  it  is  not  needed  ?  If  such  things  are  done  in  the  green  tree, 
what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry  ?  If  the  average  conditions  of  life 
in  the  best  nations  on  earth  are  what  they  are,  what  must  be  the 
average  conditions  of  life  in  savagism  and  the  uncivilized  portions  ? 
The  myriads  of  the  race,  emerging,  have  scarcely  freed  themselvea 
from  the  earth  out  of  which  they  came,  and  are  living  in  the  very 
lowest  possible  conditions.  No  man,  surely,  can  say  that  the  race 
needs  no  change,  no  elevation,  no  divine  and  spiritual  inspiration. 

The  noblest  faculties  of  the  human  soul  are  those  which  are  used 
the  least,  and,  in  wide  ranges  of  being,  apparently  not  at  all.  They 
are  dormant.     I  suppose  we  scarcely  ever  know  what  a  moral  senti- 


TEE  NEW  BIBTH.  447 

ment  means,  except  in  the  most  vague  and  oIdscui-c  manner.  We 
who  have,  from  childhood,  from  the  very  cradle,  been  taught  not  to 
live  by  the  senses,  and  have  been  inspired,  by  precept  and  example, 
with  the  thoughts  and  feelings  which  belong  to  a  higher  life,  can 
scarcely  understand  the  difference  of  co-related  tribes  and  nations, 
where,  from  year  to  year,  and  from  generation  to  generation,  there  is 
not,  in  the  best  of  them,  one  single  throb  of  lofty  sentiment.  And  yet, 
this  is  the  actual  condition  of  myriads  and  myriads  of  the  race  to-day. 
Generosity,  magnanimity,  purity,  absolute  truth-loving,  the  faith 
and  sense  of  the  invisible,  benevolence,  disinterestedness,  trust — all 
these  supreme  elements  or  sentiments  are  absolutely  unknown ;  and 
men  rise,  and  grow,  and  flourish,  and  fade,  and  die,  and  are  suc- 
ceeded by  other  generations,  that  go  in  the  same  circle;  and  the 
curriculum  is  repeated  from  age  to  age. 

Thus,  generation  after  generation,  the  noblest  part  of  human  na- 
ture has  failed.  Comparatively,  the  lower  passions  and  desires,  in 
mankind  at  large,  are  stronger  than  the  reason ;  the  reason  is  stronger 
than  the  conscience ;  and  the  conscience  is  stronger  than  the  spiritual 
instincts.  There  is  in  human  life  very  little  spiritual  inspiration ; 
very  little  that  men  can  get  from  each  other ;  very  little  that  they 
can  get  from  society ;  very  little  that  they  can  get  from  laws  and 
institutions.  The  prevalent  influences  and  tendencies  in  the  world 
at  large  are  carnal.  They  belong  to  the  lower  part  of  human  nature. 
There  is,  consequently,  very  little  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  world. 
If,  therefore,  there  ever  was  any  divine  influence  to  give  a  new  life 
and  an  upward  tendency  to  human  nature,  it  is  no  doubt  in  exist- 
ence still. 

I  have  already  said  that  upon  this  state  of  facts  Christ  declared 
that  the  new  kingdom  was  to  be  the  development  of  the  higher 
forces.  Now  the  reason  was  to  have  manifestation  ;  now  conscience 
was  to  predominate;  now  love  was  to  effulge;  now  the  natural 
forces  in  man  were  to  be  developed.  But  there  was  to  be  an  in- 
spiration by  direct  contact  of  the  human  soul  with  the  divine  soul. 
There  had  come  a  period  of  time  when,  in  the  unfolding  scheme  of 
God's  plans,  human  life  and  human  nature  were  to  be  developed  as 
they  had  not  been  before.  They  were  to  become  higher,  and  broader, 
and  stronger,  and  sweeter,  and  more  fruitful. 

The  era  of  a  more  direct  and  a  more  universal  influence  of  the 
higher  sphere  over  the  lower  had  come.  The  time  of  the  action  of 
the  divine  mind  on  the  human  mind  by  natural  laws  would  be  con- 
tinued. And,  in  addition,  there  would  be  the  giving  forth  of  the 
H  'ly  Ghost,  and  the  shedding  abroad  on  the  human  soul  of  divine 
love-bearing  influences. 

When  it  is  declared,  that  unless  a  man  is  born  again  he  shall  not 


448  TEE  NEW  BIBTU. 

see  this  new  kingdom,  it  is  simply  the  declaration  that  a  man,  in  his 
animal  being,  or  in  his  lower,  passional  nature,  never  will  come  into 
the  experience  which  belongs  to  the  purity  of  these  higher  feelings ; 
that  he  never  will  know  what  is  the  joy,  the  strength,  the  sympathy, 
the  beauty,  or  the  power  of  this  higher  life  ;  that  he  never  will  know 
what  is  in  himself,  nor  what  he  can  do.  God  has  amplitude  in  him ; 
but  he  does  not  know  what  that  amplitude  is  until  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  the  nobler  elements  of  his  being  are  developed,  and  brought 
into  supx'emacy.  Until  we  are  born  of  the  Spirit,  until  that  part  of 
ns  which  is  in  sympathy  with  God  is  touched  by  the  divine  Heart, 
and  we  are  brought  into  communion  with  God,  we  shall  not  see  nor 
know  the  substance  of  that  kingdom  in  which  God  and  men  dwell 
together. 

This  I  understand  to  be  the  general  enunciation  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ,  specially  and  personally.  It  is  true  in  respect  to  every 
one,  as  it  is  true  in  respect  to  races  and  generations  of  men,  that  he 
cannot,  except  by  the  divine  contact,  rise  into  this  higher  sphere  of 
life.  No  man  can  come  to  himself  except  the  Father  draw  him.  No 
man  can  come  to  God,  except  God  lead  him.  No  man  can  come  to 
his  own  highest  nature  except  under  the  influence  of  the  divine 
Spirit.  We  do  not  even  know  how  to  find  our  way  up  to  our  vulgar 
selves  except  by  the  teacher's  instruction  and  example.  No  man 
knows  how  to  use  his  own  tongue  until  the  mother  has  taught  him. 
Every  man,  in  the  lower  forms  of  life,  has  to  take  things  from  other 
sources,  in  order  to  develop  that  which  rudimentally  is  in  him.  And 
if  this  is  so  of  the  lower  processes  of  mind,  how  much  more  is  it 
so  of  the  higher  ones,  and  of  the  highest !  Where  shall  we  take 
counsel  in  respect  to  the  things  of  God,  if  not  of  the  divine  Spirit  ? 
And  Christ  says  that  a  man  shall  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  God 
without  being  born  of  the  Spirit.  And  that  is  true  of  every  in- 
dividual one  among  us. 

"  But,"  says  one,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  this  instantaneous  change 
of  character.  I  have  no  doubt  that  men  can  be  improved.  I  believe 
that  men,  by  attending  to  themselves,  to  their  thoughts  and  feelings, 
and  to  a  proper  use  of  help,  may  become  better ;  but  the  doctrine 
of  an  instantaneous  change  of  character  I  never  believed  before, 
and  I  do  not  believe  now."  Well,  who  ever  said  there  was  any  such 
doctrine  ?  The  Bible  never  said  it,  and  I  do  not  say  it.  I  do  not 
say  that  character  can  change  instantaneously  except  by  a  miracle. 
But  a  man's  will  can.  All  that  precedes  change  of  will  may  be  grad- 
ual, and  all  that  succeeds  a  change  of  will  may  be  gradual ;  but  the 
will  itself  changes,  when  it  does  change,  instantaneously,  at  once.  If 
a  man  is  born  again  of  the  Spirit,  it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  born 
as  quick  as  a  flash  of  lightning.    It  does  not  follow  that  the  whole 


TEE  NE  W  BIR  TH.  449 

divine  work  is  done  with  instantaneity.     That  is  not  the  declaration 
at  all. 

Whenever  a  man  comes  to  that  point  at  which  he  decisively 
yields  himself  to  the  divine  authority,  and  says  to  God,  "  Thy  will 
be  done,"  I  hold  that  man  to  be  converted.  It  is  the  coming  over 
of  his  will  from  self-control  to  the  divine  control.  Yielding  one's 
allegiance  to  God  is  conversion.  But  the  circumstances  which  led 
to  this  result  may  have  worked  through  long  periods  of  time.  Some 
trouble  or  some  prosperity,  some  new  thought,  urged  under  such 
and  such  circumstances ;  more  truth  presented ;  truth  presented 
more  clearly — these  things  may  work  little  by  little,  and  bring  a 
man  nearer  and  nearer  to  a  point  where  he  is  willing  to  submit 
himself  to  the  sovereign  controlling  will  of  God,  and  to  enter  the 
higher  spiritual  life.  And  the  hour  and  the  moment  come  in  which 
the  soul  says,  substantially,  "  Thy  will,  not  mine,  be  done."  And 
the  transition  is  made.  s^ 

Now  begins  another  course  of  gradual  influences.  When  a  man 
has  begun  to  live  as  a  denizen  of  the  new  kingdom,  a  child  of  light, 
a  son  of  God,  he  cannot  live  perfectly  at  once.  He  has  entered  upon 
a  life  in  which  he  is  like  a  little  child.  And  he  has  everything  to 
learn  over  again.  He  is  introduced  into  a  new  sphere,  and  is  acted 
upon  by  new  influences.  He  addresses  himself  to  whatever  he  does 
entirely  in  the  light  of  duty.  All  his  former  impulses  are  changed. 
All  his  ideas  are  exalted.  Many  things  are  put  down  that  were 
predominant  before.  Many  things  are  lifted  up  that  were  low  and 
ignoble  before.  There  is  a  new  realm  opened  to  him,  with  many 
new  things  added,  and  many  old  things  changed  so  that  they  seem 
new.  And  now  it  will  require  his  whole  life  to  rebuild  in  this  new 
sphere  the  elements  of  character.  So  that  the  character  is  changed 
not  suddenly,  but  gradually,  little  by  little,  by  accretion,  fulfilling 
his  purpose,  at  first  feebly,  but  more  from  day  to  day,  and  more 
from  year  to  year,  the  work  of  regeneration  going  on  and  on,  until 
he  becomes  perfect  in  the  higher  life. 

If,  then,  you  object  to  a  change  of  heart  because  it  is  instan- 
taneous :  No,  it  is  not.  Nor  is  it  taught  that  it  is.  If  you  object  to 
it  because  you  think  character  is  gradually  formed,  or  undergoes  a 
gradual  change  :  So  do  I  think,  and  so  does  the  Bible  teach;  and 
your  objection  is  no  objection.  I  do  not  believe  that  men  are  ever 
struck,  as  with  lightning,  and  instantly  changed  in  character,  being 
debased  sinners  one  minute,  and  the  next  minute  rapturous  saints. 
I  believe  that  men  are  subject  to  very  powerful  influences  which 
change  them  very  much  ;  but  I  do  not  think  the  change  is  such  as 
immediately  to  take  away  the  old  disposition  and  replace  it  by  a 


450  THE  NE  W  BIB  TE. 

new  one,  or  suddenly  to  transform  the  habits.  These  changes  re- 
quire long-continued  exertion  and  labor.  And  if  your  objection  to 
the  doctrine  of  a  change  of  heart  lies  in  its  instantaneity,  you  can 
withdraw  it ;  for  nature  and  revelation  and  experience  all  teach  us 
that  the  change  is  a  gradual  progression  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
state ;  such  as  that,  when  it  is  completed,  we  shall  stand  complete 
in  Zion  and  before  God. 

"  But,"  says  another,  "  I  object  to  the  doctrine  of  this  change 
by  which  a  man  becomes  religious,  as  produced  by  the  Divine  Spirit. 
I  see  the  law  of  causation  as  clearly  in  that  which  is  termed  con- 
version, as  in  any  other  mental  process.  It  is  an  effect  produced  by 
definite,  prescribed  and  perceived  causes." 

Who  ever  denied  that  ?  Not  I,  surely.  When  the  divine  mind 
acts  upon  my  mind,  it  acts  according  to  the  law  of  my  mind,  as 
much  as  when  I  act  on  your  minds  I  act  according  to  the  laws  of 
your  minds.  If  you  are  laboring  under  a  mistake,  and  I  correct  the 
mistake,  do  I  not  change  your  intellectual  state  ?  but  do  I  not  do  it 
through  your  intellectual  faculties  ?  If  your  mind  is  keyed  low, 
and  I  change  the  key  of  your  mind,  and  lift  your  soul  into  a  higher 
condition,  do  I  not  do  it  according  to  the  law  of  your  mind  ?  I 
think  that  the  action  of  the  divine  mind  is  in  concurrence  with  the 
law  of  the  human  mind ;  and  when  the  Spirit  of  God  enters  a  man, 
and  enlightens  and  inspires  and  strengthens  him,  it  is  not  done  by 
any  other  process  than  that  by  which  the  mind  is  affected.  God 
is  infinitely  wise  ;  and  shall  he  not  know  how  best  to  manage  the 
faculties  which  he  has  created  ? 

"  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear?    He  that  formed  the  eye, 
shall  he  not  see  ?" 

And  he  that  created  the  human  mind,  shall  he  not  understand 
how  to  direct  it  ?  The  engineer  of  a  machine,  does  he  not  know  how 
to  run  it  ?  He  that  made  a  watch,  does  he  not  know  how  to  set  it 
a-going  ?  And  he  that  made  myriads  of  minds,  and  has  adminis- 
tered over  men  through  ages,  does  he  not  know  how  to  touch  the 
springs  of  thought  and  moral  sentiment,  and  all  the  powers  of  man's 
nature  ?  Why  do  we  need  to  fly  to  the  supposition  that  if  it  is 
taught  that  God  changes  a  man's  nature,  it  is  implied  that  it  is  done 
contrary  to  law,  or  even  against  law  ?  Nay,  there  is  no  fulfillment 
of  law  more  signal,  more  noble,  than  that  by  which  the  Father- 
heart  of  God  inflames  the  hearts  of  men  by  natural  laws  divinely 
inspired,  and  leads  them  to  a  higher  state  and  a  nobler  condition. 

"  But,"  says  another,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  those  scenes  where 
conversion  is  supposed  to  take  j^lace.  I  do  not  believe  in  revivals. 
I  do  not  believe  in  meetings  where  men  are  excited,  and  carried 
away,  and  where  they  shout  and  pray  till  they  scarcely  know  what 


THJE  NE  W  BIETH,  451 

they  arc  doing,  and  where  some  change  takes  place,  they  do  not 
know  what,  and  they  are  said  to  be  converted.  I  do  not  believe  in 
what  men  call  conversion^  when  I  see  how  it  is  performed." 

Now,  that  there  are  a  great  many  persons  who  are  in  such  ways 
as  these  brought  into  states  of  mind  that  are  transitory ;  that  there 
are  many  persons  who  are  inspired  with  impressions  respecting 
themselves  which  are  not  valid  in  fact,  no  person  can  deny.  It  is 
not  my  purpose  to  say  that  all  men  are  really  converted  who  are 
called  converted.  Nobody  could  suppose  this  to  be  the  doctrine 
taught  in  the  Scripture. 

But  think  of  the  objection  that  men  are  religiously  influenced 
and  brought  into  the  church  in  consequence  of  the  efiect  of  meet- 
ings. Suppose  you  should  hear  a  person  laughing  at  schools,  and 
saying,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  education.  Just  see  what  they  do  ? 
They  take  boys  and  girls,  and  put  them  into  a  house,  and  shut  out 
all  influences  that  attract  their  attention,  and  set  them  on  benches, 
and  give  them  books,  and  make  them  study,  and  read,  and  spell, 
and  write,  and  cipher ;  and  when  they  have  dealt  with  them  in  this 
way  for  a  given  time,  and  filled  their  heads  with  this,  that  and  the 
other  thmg,  they  send  them  home,  and  think  that  they  are  edu- 
cated. But  it  is  all  an  illusion,  they  are  not  educated."  If  you 
mean  that  they  are  not  perfected  in  education,  that  is  so  ;  but  is  it 
not  an  honorable  thing,  and  a  rational  thing,  for  one  to  wish  to  brino- 
up  his  children  with  an  education,  and  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
that  education  in  this  way  ? 

A  person  wishes  to  perfect  his  manners.  He  goes  to  a  dancing- 
school  where  all  boorishness  and  improprieties  are  kept  out.  And 
he,  among  others,  is  put  into  various  postures,  and  taught  to  place 
the  right  foot  forward,  and  make  graceful  motions  and  proper  bows 
and  courtesies.  And  a  man  says,  "  Talk  about  grace  !  Being  shut 
up  in  a  room,  and  running  about  on  the  floor,  and  bowing  and 
scraping,  and  moving  backward  and  forward,  and  putting  the  body 
in  a  great  variety  of  attitudes — is  that  what  you  call  grace  ?  I 
should  think  there  was  very  little  grace  about  that."  But,  after  all, 
is  not  that  the  way  to  acquire  grace  ?  Is  not  a  school  where  ease 
and  elegance  of  motion  and  carriage  ai-e  taught  a  school  of  grace  ? 
And  if  a  person  is  shut  up  to  the  thing  which  you  wish  to  educate 
him  in,  is  it  not  normal  and  natural  ?  When  we  organize  a  school, 
our  object  is  to  instruct  those  who  enter  it  in  those  things  in  which 
they  are  deficient.  If  we  want  to  educate  men  for  their  duties  as 
citizens,  we  have  campaign  clubs,  and  meetings,  and  speaking  and 
writing.  If  we  wish  to  make  a  person  a  musician  or  an  artist,  we 
shut  him  up  to  music  or  art.     If  we  wish  to  fit  persons  for  social 


452  IHE  NE  W  BIBTE. 

life,  we  keep  that  special  purpose  in  view  in  tlieir  training.  And  if 
we  wish  to  inspire  men  with  moral  impulses,  why  not  shut  them  up 
to  moral  influences,  or  put  them  where  moral  influences  for  the  time 
being  predominate  over  all  others  ?  If  a  man  lives  selfishly,  and 
vainly,  and  proudly ;  if  he  lives  carnally,  is  it  not  wise  to  hold  up 
before  him  the  claims  of  a  noble,  spiritual  life  ?  Is  it  not  wise  to 
expound  to  him  the  doctrines  of  Christ  ?  Is  it  not  wise  to  bring  to 
bear  upon  him  those  influences  which  belong  to  the  higher  range 
of  truth  ?  Is  it  not  in  consonance  with  experience,  and  analogy, 
and  philosophy,  to  do  by  men  in  religion  as  we  do  in  music,  or  art, 
or  any  other  department  of  human  life  ? 

When,  therefore,  men  find  fault  with  revivals  and  religious  meet- 
ings, saying  that  they  are  artificial,  I  reply  that  every  other  means  of 
education  is  artificial,  just  as  much.  A  revival  is  nothing  but  a 
school  for  the  education  of  the  moral  feelings' and  is  exactly  adapted 
to  the  necessities  of  many  men. 

If  you  say  that  many  of  those  who  make  a  profession  of  religion 
do  not  live  in  accordance  with  that  profes»sion,  my  reply  is  that  it  is 
with  this  as  with  other  things.  You  never  saw  an  apple  tree  that 
did  not  have  fifty  blossoms  where  there  was  one  that  set  and  came 
to  fruit.  And  it  may  be  true  that  in  a  community  where  fifty  men 
are  impressed  with  religion  only  one  will  become  a  ripe  Christian, 
while  all  the  rest  will  more  or  less  lose  their  impressions,  and  relapse 
into  difierent  degrees  of  inferiority  all  the  way  down.  The  imper- 
fections of  the  processes  of  religion  are  no  argument  against  their 
reality.  They  are  as  real  as  the  processes  of  education,  and  busi- 
ness, and  the  mechanic  arts.  The  same  law  governs  them.  And  I 
claim  for  revivals  of  religion  all  that  can  be  claimed  for  the  means 
which  are  employed  for  the  development  of  men  in  the  different 
realms  of  secular  life.  They  are  normal  and  philosophical.  And 
if  a  man  says,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  the  fruits  of  such  meetings  ;  I 
have  no  faith  in  the  pretensions  of  men  who  claim  to  be  converted 
there,"  ray  reply  is.  You  may  not  believe  in  them  ;  but  you  ought 
not  to  disbelieve  in  them  on  account  of  the  inconsistencies  which 
accompany  them.  There  are  inconsistencies  everywhere,  and  no 
more  in  revivals  of  religion  than  in  many  other  directions.  That 
there  are  many  lasting  fruits  from  this  source,  no  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  facts  will  deny. 

Another  objection  is  that  men  who  profess  to  have  been  convert- 
ed are  no  better  than  hundreds  who  make  no  such  profession.  Very 
likely  they  are  not  any  better.  What  then  ?  Very  likely  many 
men  who  are  gathered  into  the  church  at  places  of  conversion  are 
hypocritical  j  very  likely  many  of  them  are  counterfeits  ;  very  likely 


THE  NE  W  BIBTH.  458 

many  of  them  are  mistaken.  But  then,  was  it  not  better  for  them 
to  have  tried  to  do  something,  even  if  they  did  make  a  mistake  and 
fall  short,  than  to  hav»  sat  still  and  done  nothing  ?  Supposing  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  higher  life,  is  not  he  nobler  who  makes  a 
strife  for  it,  even  if  he  cannot  fly  high  enough  to  reach  it,  and  falls 
back,  than  the  man  that  does  not  strive  for  it  ? 

Here  sit  a  parcel  of  doleful  critics,  that  say,  "  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  scaling  that  wall."  One  and  another  make  the  effort  (for 
they  must  scale  it,  or  perish)  ;  but  none  of  them  goes  quite  high 
enough,  and,  exhausted,  one  after  another  falls  back.  And  after  five 
or  six  have  failed,  these  critics  say,  "  I  told  you  so,  I  told  you  so." 
But  those  brave  men  who,  having  failed  in  their  endeavors,  fall 
back,  are  superior  to  those  vulgar  creatures  who  feel  no  aspiration, 
and  do  not  lift  a  wing. 

But  you  cannot  tell  whether  a  man  has  power  or  not  until  you 
see  the  inside  of  him.  There  are  multitudes  of  men  converted 
whose  condition  you  cannot  determine  by  what  you  see  of  them. 
There  is  a  hidden  life  in  them.  The  kingdom  of  God  does  not  come 
with  observation.  Many  a  man  has  the  kingdom  of  God  in  him 
when  you  do  not  know  it,  because  you  are  not  omniscient,  and  are 
not  a  discerner  of  spirits. 

But,  more  than  that,  you  have  no  right  to  compare  one  man  with 
another.  There  is  nothing  in  this  world  more  false  in  principle  than 
to  measure  men  in  that  way,  and  say  that  one  is  not  a  Christian  be- 
cause he  does  not  live  so  and  so,  and  that  another  is  a  Christian  be- 
cause he  does  live  so  and  so.  It  is  not  right  to  measure  a  man 
who  is  far  down  in  the  scale  of  endowment  and  privilege  by  one  who 
is  far  up  in  these  regards.  Every  man  must  be  measured  by  what 
he  himself  is. 

In  the  spring,  I  take  a  rose  that  seems  to  have  lost  almost  all  its 
vitality,  and  to  be  struggling  for  shoots ;  and  I  carry  it  to  Mr. 
Turner,  and  say,  "  Give  it  a  fair  chance  to  grow."  And  he  opens 
the  ground,  and  gives  it  a  generous  quantity  of  rich  earth,  and  it 
begins  to  throw  out  shoots,  and  it  grows  through  the  summer,  and 
reaches  a  height  of  six  inches,  and  by  autumn  it  is  really  blossom- 
ing. But  suppose  I  should  look  down  at  this  stunted  rose,  and  then 
up  at  the  large  one,  and  say,  "  This  is  no  rose  at  all,  compared  with 
that  one  which  has  grown  nearly  six  feet,  instead  of  six  inches"  ? 
You  must  measure  those  roses  by  what  they  were  when  they  started, 
and  by  the  chances  which  they  had  for  growth,  and  not  by  what 
they  are  now. 

And  in  measuring  men,  it  is  not  fair  to  say,  "  That  man  is  a 
lovelier  specimen  than  that  man."    You  are  not  to  go  into  the  out- 


454  TEE  NEW  BIBTH. 

ward  history  of  one  and  another,  and  draw  a  parallel,  and  say, 
"  This  man  was  an  old  curmudgeon  ;  he  was  insatiate  in  his  desire 
for  wealth  ;  and  he  had  acquired  a  vast  property  :  but  there  was  a 
little  revolution  in  his  affairs  ;  and  he  went  to  a  Methodist  meeting ; 
and  there  he  became  excited,  and  hallooed  and  yelled,  and  after- 
ward came  out  a  Christian  !  but  that  man  has  always  been  generous, 
and  kind,  and  upright,  in  his  dealings,  and  he  makes  no  pretensions 
to  Christianity."  There  is  no  justice  in  such  a  comparison.  It  is 
probable  that  this  man  who  was  hard  and  grinding  and  avaricious, 
but  who  now  calls  himself  a  Christian,  has  made  a  greater  struggle 
and  a  better  fight  for  spiritual  life  than  that  other  man  ever  dreamed 
of.  He  was  low  down  ;  but  he  received  a  spiritual  shock,  that  set 
his  mind  at  work.  And  he  undertook  to  make  a  better  man  of  him- 
self. And  gradually  he  emerged  from  his  sordid,  selfish  condition, 
into  a  state  where  he  was  under  the  continual  inspiration  of  God's 
love.  And  at  last  he  became  a  man  second  to  no  other  in  the  whole 
region.  It  took  many  years  to  do  it,  but  it  was  done.  And  you 
must  measure  him  by  what  he  was  at  the  beginning.  You  must  take 
into  account  that  at  the  outset  he  was  low  down  in  the  scale.  Ah  ! 
he  never  had  a  mother  that  wept  and  prayed  over  him  as  your 
mother  wept  and  prayed  over  you,  critic !  He  never  had  brothers 
and  sisters  who  were  a  living  interpretation  of  beneficence,  as  you 
had,  critic  !  He  never  had  companions  that  inspired  him  with  gen- 
erosity. Everybody  plucked  at  him ;  and,  with  eagle's  claws,  as  it 
were,  he  plucked  at  everybody.  You,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
brought  up  under  the  influence  of  the  sweet  interchange  of  kind- 
ness. You  had  advantages  for  growth  and  culture  sixch  as  he  knew 
nothing  of.  And  in  your  estimate  of  him  these  facts  must  not  be 
overlooked.  There  is  many  a  man  that  you  despise,  and  that  you 
Bay  is  not  a  Christian,  who,  in  the  day  of  God's  judgment  will 
stand  higher  than  you  do,  because,  having  received  little,  he  grew 
much,  while  you,  having  received  much,  grew  little. 

But  why  should  a  man  wish  to  find  fault  with  such  a  truth  as 
this  of  the  Spirit's  help?  Why  should  a  man  seek  objections 
against  this  blessed  doctrine,  that  a  wicked  man  may  change  his 
heart  ?  Do  you  want  to  believe  that  a  man  who  has  begun  must 
continue  to  go  wrong,  and  become  worse  and  worse  all  his  life  long? 
Ought  not  every  generous  man's  heart  to  be  made  glad  by  the  faith 
that  though  a  man's  sins  be  as  scarlet  they  may  be  washed  away, 
and  he  become  white  as  snow  ?  Should  not  the  spirit  of  gratitude 
be  inspired  in  us  by  the  doctrine  of  the  possibility  of  a  change  from 
a  lower  course  to  a  higher  ;  by  the  doctrine  that  a  man  may 
be  emancipated  from  the  flesh,  and  need  not  live  in  these  animal  con- 


TEE  NEW  BIETH.  455 

ditions ;  by  the  doctrine  that  God  will  meet  us  more  than  half  way ; 
that  he  Avill  go  as  far  to  find  us  as  to  find  the  flowers  ?  When 
rightly  interpreted,  it  is  the  most  glorious  doctrine  that  was  ever 
presented  to  man.  It  was  this  doctrine  that  was  revealed  by  God, 
and  made  manifest  through  his  Son  in  the  flesh. 

The  time  has  come,  then,  when  men  no  longer  need  to  live  in  the 
flesh.  There  has  come  a  new  development.  A  divine  spirit  is  o-iven 
to  every  man  who  will  accept  it.  And  accepting  it,  he  shall  rise  into 
a  higher  life.  He  will  be  born  again,  and  will  find  himself  drawn 
toward  a  better  and  more  comforting  state. 

Is  there  any  man  here,  to-night,  who  has  been  going  down,  down 
down  ?  I  do  not  say  to  you  that  unless  you  are  born  again  you 
shall  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  You  know  that  as  well  as  I  do. 
But  ah  !  discouraged  man,  so  often  sliding  when  you  thought  your 
foot  was  safe,  so  often  trying  and  failing,  I  come  to  you  and  say 
You  may  he  born  again.  There  is  hope  for  you.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  you  should  go  on  from  bad  to  worse.  There  is  a  power  in  God 
by  which  you  may  be  quickened,  emancipated,  raised  from  the  dead 
born  into  a  new  life.  There  is  hope  for  every  man,  no  matter  how 
bad  he  is,  or  how  far  he  has  gone  in  wrong  courses.  There  may  not 
be  hope  for  you  in  your  neighbor;  you  may  turn  to  him  in  vain  for 
counsel ;  so  long  as  you  look  to  men  for  help  you  may  be  shut  up 
m  darkness  and  despair  ;  but  there  is  a  God  that  will  succor  you. 
And  you  do  not  need  to  even  speak  to  him.  Open  your  heart  and 
let  it  lie  open  before  him,  and  he  will  see  it,  and  minister  to  it.  Your 
mother  does  not  think  so  tenderly  of  you  as  he  does.  Uncover  your 
Boul,  and  God  will  shine  upon  it.  There  is  power  in  him  to  do  for 
you  that  which,  by  your  own  unaided  will,  you  cannot  do  for  your- 
self. He  will  work  i7i  you  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good 
pleasure. 

And  I  say  to  every  man  whom  God  has  saved.  Do  not  give  up 
the  lost.  Do  not  cast  the  wanderers  out  of  your  watch  and  care. 
Hold  on  to  your  children,  no  matter  what  they  have  done.  Hold  on 
to  your  friends.  Do  not  cast  them  ofi".  Hope  for  men  that  have 
gone  astray,  and  strive  to  rescue  them.  Work  courageously  for  the 
release  of  those  who  are  in  the  bondage  of  death.  Do  not  despair 
of  saving  the  youth. 

And  to  all  I  say,  as  long  as  there  is  life  there  is  hope.  Till  the 
last  day,  till  your  sun  goes  down,  in  the  very  last  hour,  remember 
that  the  dear  Spirit  of  God  hovers  near  you,  and  that  by  the  power 
of  his  Spirit  you  may  be  enfranchised,  and  illumined,  and  made  meet 
to  inherit  eternal  life. 


45  6  THE  NE  W  BIBTE. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  draw  near  to  thee,  our  Heavenly  Father,  encouraged  by  the  memory 
of  days  gone  by.  How  many  times,  weary  and  faint,  have  we  found  refresh- 
ment in  the  tabernacles  of  our  God!  How  many  times,  despondent  and 
heavy  of  heart,  have  we  been  cheered  and  lifted  up  by  thy  power !  How 
many  times  have  we  smitten  on  our  breast,  daring  not  to  lift  our  eyes,  and 
thou  hast  sent  us  away  testifying  of  thy  mercy  and  goodness,  and  of  our  sins 
forgiven  !  How  often  hast  thou  made  the  place  of  our  meeting  sweet !  Our 
most  sacred  religious  life  thou  hast  granted  to  us  in  communion  with  thee, 
and  in  fellowship  one  with  another ! 

And  now,  O  Lord  our  God,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  draw  us 
again.  Open  thy  nature  to  our  thought.  And  if  we  cannot  reach  to  compass 
the  circuit  of  thy  being,  still  thou  canst  grant  unto  us  some  knowledge  of 
thyself.  Thou  canst  shine,  though  we  cannot  take  in  all  thy  beams,  nor  by 
searching  find  thee  out  unto  perfection.  Grant  unto  every  one  of  us  so  much 
of  the  knowledge  of  God  as  shall  lift  his  heart  above  things  carnal.  Cheer 
us  in  the  weary  way  of  Ufe.  Encourage  us  to  faith  and  perseverance  unto 
the  end.  How  many  there  are  that  fain  would  fly  toward  thee,  but  cannot ! 
Condescend  to  such.  And  grant,  O  Lord,  that  thy  Spirit  may  inspire  in  them 
the  petitions  which  they  know  not  how  to  utter !  How  many  are  there  that 
know  their  great  need,  but  know  not  wherein  it  consists.  But  thou,  O  God, 
canst  call  us  forth.  Thou  canst  lift  the  heavy  weight.  Thou  canst  dispel  the 
gloomy  cloud.  Thou  canst  reach  in  to  the  hidden  springs  that  give  life. 
Thou  canst  make  life  where  is  death ;  and  light,  where  is  darkness.  How 
many  there  are  that  pray  for  things  that  are  not  best !  We  beseech  of  thee 
that  thou  wilt  answer  them  better  than  they  ask  of  thee,  and  do  for  them, 
not  what  they  wish,  but  those  things  which  shall  please  thee. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  God,  that  thou  wilt  listen  to  those  whom  thou  hast 
taught  to  pray.  Grant  unto  them  things  right.  And  may  they  have  hope, 
and  tmst,  and  royal  confidence  in  God.  Oh,  may  we  not  distrust  thee. 
Every  other  one  most  dear  to  us  may  we  distrust  rather  than  thee,  thou  that 
canst  not  deceive ;  thou  that  wilt  never  go  aside  from  thy  work.  May  we 
abide  in  a  steadfast  confidence  in  the  faithfulness  of  our  God.  Thou  art  our 
souls'  help.  All  our  help  doth  spring  from  thee.  Thou  wilt  succor  us,  and 
that  to  the  end. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  inspire  us  to  pray,  not  alone  for  our- 
selves and  those  immediately  under  our  care,  but  for  others.  May  our  hearts 
be  enlarged.  May  we  look  out  upon  the  multitudes  that  have  none  to  care 
for  them.  May  we  search  out  those  that  need  special  divine  grace ;  and  may 
our  prayers  flow  to  thee,  and  be  blessed  to  their  conversion  and  to  their  edifi- 
cation in  the  Christian  life.  We  pray  that  the  spirit  of  prayer  may  be  dif- 
fused among  all  our  families.  We  pray  that  this  whole  Church  may  be 
brought  up  in  a  praying  spirit,  and  that  those  especially  who  are  laboring 
with  the  poor  and  ignorant  may  be  moved  of  God  to  great  power.  And  may 
we  see  the  answers  of  their  prayer. 

And  we  pray  for  this  city  in  which  we  dwell.  Wilt  thou  cleanse  it  in  every 
part  of  it.  Bless  those  that  labor  for  the  reformation  of  morals.  Bless  those 
who  labor  for  the  establishment  of  wise  laws,  and  a  wise  and  incorrupt 
administration  of  them.  Bless  those  who  teach,  and  those  who  preach  the 
Gospel.  May  thy  churches  be  multiplied  and  strengthened.  May  their  influ- 
ence be  salutary  in  this  great  community. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  remember  our  land,  and  raise  up 
all  those  institutions  and  instruments  which  are  necessary  for  its  evangeliza- 
tion.   We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  given  us  such  a  country  and  released  us 


TEE  NJS  W  BIRTH.  457 

from  the  hurdens  and  cruelties  of  oppression ;  and  that  whilst  others  are 
suffering  and  ai'c  trodden  down  as  the  dust  in  the  street,  we  are  abiding  in 
plenty  and  prosperity. 

May  we  not  forget  those  that  suffer  as  once  we  suffered.  We  pray  for  the 
despoiled,  the  outcast,  the  homeless,  and  helpless.  And  we  pray  that  others 
may  be  speedily  raised  up  on  every  hand  to  succor  those  who  are  most  in 
need. 

And  we  pray  for  the  time  to  come  when  garments  rolled  in  blood  shall 
pass  away ;  when  the  sword  shall  be  sheathed ;  when  the  voice  of  desolation 
shall  be  no  more  heard  in  the  land.  Oh,  for  the  times  of  education !  Oh,  for 
the  times  of  true  piety !  Oh,  for  justice  and  love  and  fellowship  among  men ! 
O  Lord  God,  when  shall  the  day  come  that  men  shall  cease  to  be  beasts  and 
rend  each  other  ?  When  shall  come  those  days  of  plenty  and  peace  and  glad- 
ness that  are  predicted  ?  O  Lord,  hasten  that  day  in  thine  own  good  time. 
Let  the  Gospel  come  forth,  and  unloose  the  powers  of  heaven  above.  May 
all  the  earth  follow  the  voice  of  thy  decrees.  May  the  hving  power  that  is  in 
thee  be  for  the  restoration  of  the  image  of  God  in  man,  for  the  lifting  up  of 
the  race,  and  for  its  enfranchisement  and  establishment  in  all  righteousness. 
Even  so.  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  shaU  be  endless  praises.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  truth  spoken. 
Grant  that  it  may  touch  the  heart.  Grant  that  it  may  encourage  the  despond- 
ing, enlighten  those  that  are  ignorant,  and  win  those  that  are  reluctant. 
May  there  be  many  that  shall  attempt  this  new  life,  not  in  their  own 
strength,  but  leaning  upon  thine ;  not  in  their  own  wisdom,  but  inflamed  by 
thine.  Oh,  that  we  might  learn  more  and  more  how  poor  in  fruit  of  enjoy- 
ment is  the  life  of  the  flesh,  and  how  full  of  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  the 
life  of  the  spirit !  Lift  us  into  that  sphere,  and  give  us  its  deep  tranquillity, 
its  communion  with  God,  its  hope,  its  faith,  and  its  victory.  And  to  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  everlasting.    Amen. 


\ 


XXIV. 

Working  out  our  own  Salvation. 


WORKIIG  OUT  OUR  OWN  SALVATION. 


"Wherefore,  my  beloved,  as  ye  have  always  obeyed ,  not  as  in  my  presence 
only,  but  now  much  more  in  my  absence,  work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling:  for  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure."— Phil.  II.,  12, 13. 


The  first  question  which  would  naturally  suggest  itself  among 
men  upon  this  passage,  is  whether  religion  is  a  completed  work,  im- 
parted by  divine  power  to  the  human  soul,  whether  it  is  something 
finished  and  made  over  to  men,  or  whether  it  is  a  work  which  un- 
folds gradually,  an  education,  difiering  from  others,  not  so  much  by 
its  processes  and  philosophy,  as  by  the  higher  sphere  in  which  it  is 
taking  place. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  things  taught  by  stress  of  contro- 
versy in  this  world,  which  fell  to  the  ground  afterward,  by  their  own 
weight.  There  has  been  a  doctrine  of  imputed  character,  or,  as  it 
is  more  familiarly  called,  imputed  righteous7iess,  by  a  very  gross 
misuse  of  certain  apostolic  forms  ;  and  men  held  and  taught,  in  past 
times  (not  so  much,  I  think,  now),  that  Christ  wrought  out  a  right- 
eousness, and  that  he  conferred  it  upon  those  who  believed  in  him ; 
so  that  it  was  as  something  transferred — a  substance,  a  spiritual 
quality,  or  a  spiritual  condition,  in  its  perfection,  existing  first  in 
him,  and  then  conferred  upon  others.  The  illustrative  figures  fre- 
quently employed  were  those  of  garments.  As  our  bodies  are 
clothed  with  dress,  so  our  souls  are  clothed  with  the  righteousness 
of  Christ. 

Such  was  the  figure — for  it  was  but  a  figure  ;  and  on  this  figure , 
has  been  founded  the  substance  of  a  discriminating  doctrine  dividing 
between  one  school  of  theology  and  another. 

It  has  been  held  that  some  men  had  sin  imputed  to  them,  while 
other  men  had  moral  character  imputed  to  them.  By  this  is  meant 
that  one  man,  being  righteous,  his  righteousness  was  passed  over 
upon  others ;  and  it  was  said  that  when  they  sinned,  they  were  ac- 
counted as  if  they  were  righteous ;  that  righteousness  was  imputed 

StTNPAY  EvKNTNO,  Jan.  22,  187L   Lesson  :  PsA.  XXm.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Collec- 
tion) :  Nos.  847,  865, 1351. 


462  WORKING  OUTOUB  0 WN  SAL VA TION. 

to  them,  in  the  sense  that,  though  they  were  sinful  and  imperfect, 
they  were  accounted  as  if  they  were  sinless  and  righteous  before 
God. 

The  characters  of  men  in  this  world,  have,  on  that  account,  been 
supposed  to  be  things  of  divine  manufacture ;  and  men's  notions 
were  so  crude  that  they  supposed  these  qualities  were  wrought  out 
in  the  divine  mind,  and  then  transfused  in  their  perfect  condition, 
to  the  human  mind. 

When  the  apostle  says, 
"  Work  out  your  own  salvation," 
does  he  countenance  such  a  notion  as  this  ?  Does  he  not,  on  the 
contrary,  refute  it,  and  show  tnac,  whatever  may  be  wrought  in  man 
by  the  divine  power,  it  is  sometning  that  man  has  an  agency  in  pro- 
ducing ;  that  it  is  wrought  out  of  a  particular  state  in  his  own  soul ; 
that  it  is  conferred  upon  him  as  a  responsible  agent  ? 

The  reasons  which  formerly  made  theologians  afraid  of  human 
interference,  in  the  work  of  their  own  salvation,  were  twofold.  In 
the  first  place,  it  was  supposed  that  it  would  detract  from  the  glory 
of  God  to  teach  that  moral  results  flow  from  the  indirect  effect  of 
the  divine  will,  instead  of  from  the  direct  effect.  And  yet,  all  na- 
ture had  been  teaching  the  world,  if  they  could  but  have  under- 
stood it,  that  this  was  the  method  of  the  divine  action,  and  that 
God,  who  certainly  should  know  what  his  own  glory  is,  and  what 
will  glorify  him  throughout  all  nature,  is  setting  causes  in  operation 
which  shall  produce  the  effects  that  he  desires,  he  ministering  to 
those  causes,  and  they  being  made  to  produce  results,  and  the 
world  being  made  vital,  that  it  may,  according  to  its  own  law,  and 
in  its  own  place,  bring  forth  its  results  in  all  excellence. 

So  God  does  work ;  and  doubtless  he  counts  himself  to  be  glori- 
fied by  the  work  which  he  produces. 

A  better  knowledge  of  that  which  science  in  our  day  is  revealing 
so  clearly,  would  have  saved  them  from  supposing  that  God  would 
be  less  honored  by  producing  indirect  and  instrumental  results,  than 
by  producing  direct  and  personal  and  voluntary  ones. 

But  there  was  another  reason  why  men  were  afraid  of  human 
interference  in  the  work  of  salvation.  It  was  this :  that  the  old 
Roman  church  had  been  teaching  the  doctrine  that  men  could  lay 
up  for  themselves,  by  good  deeds,  not  only  righteousness,  but  a  cer- 
tain superfluous  quantity  of  it,  to  be  drawn  from,  as  money  is  drawn 
from  a  bank,  against  the  time  of  need. 

The  reformers  undertook  to  meet  this  doctrine  of  good  works, 
as  held  in  the  Roman  church  ;  and  not  discriminating  nicely  enough, 
they  set  their  faces  emphatically  against  man's  works,  and  taught 


WORKING  OUT  OUR  OWN  8ALVA110N.  463 

(many  of  them,  at  any  rate)  that  men  could  do  nothing  in  the  di- 
rection of  righteousness,  or  that  the  things  which  they  did  do  in 
that  direction  were  without  virtue ;  that  they  had  no  moral  quality 
in  them ;  and  that  nothing  was  of  any  account  except  that  which 
God  himself  taught.  They  were  driven  by  stress  of  controversy 
over  upon  this  extreme  ground  ;  and  they  taught  that  no  man  could 
repent  of  nimself.  He  must  wait  for  the  Spirit  of  God  to  bring  re- 
pentance to  him.  According  to  their  teaching,  no  man  could  change 
his  own  heart,  or  disposition,  or  life.  It  must  be  changed  in  him  by 
the  irresistible  power  of  the  divine  will.  In  order  to  set  themselves 
against  the  Roman  corrupt  doctrine  of  good  works,  they  came  near 
cutting  up  by  the  roots  the  motives  of  personal  endeavor,  and  indi- 
vidual effort. 

This  gave  rise  to  a  style  of  preaching  which  shut  men  off  from 
activity,  and  almost  produced  a  state  of  torpidity.  I  very  well  re- 
member the  time  (and  it  may  be  that  many  of  the  older  members 
of  this  congregation  remember  the  same  time)  when  preachers,  in 
urging  men  to  a  godly  life,  cautioned  them,  at  every  step,  that  they 
should  not  go  too  fast  nor  too  far,  lest  they  should,  as  it  were,  undo 
the  work  of  the  Spirit.  In  every  exhortation,  men  were  bidden  to 
beware,  and  wait  for  the  divine  influence. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  men  waited  for  God — waited  as  if  in 
order  to  have  the  divine  nature  put  into  the  human  soul,  there  was 
nothing  to  be  done  by  man  except  to  receive  it.  He  was  the  mighty 
recipient,  and  God  was  the  Author  absolute.  And,  as  the  case  of  a 
clock  may  be  imagined  to  stand  waiting  for  the  clock-maker  to 
bring  the  completed  machinery  and  put  into  it,  and  wind  it  up,  the 
case  saying,  "  What  am  I  ?  I  cannot  keep  time ;  I  cannot  make 
anything  in  myself  that  will  keep  time  ;  and  here  I  stand ;  and 
whenever  my  owner  pleases  to  put  a  clock  in  me  I  will  perform  • 
but  I  must  wait  till  then"  ;  so  men  stand  and  say,  "  If  it  is  God 
that  works  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good  pleasure,  what 
can  we  do  ?  We  want  to  be  pardoned,  but  we  cannot  pardon  our- 
selves ;  and  we  wait  for  God  to  pardon  us.  We  want  to  be  built 
up  in  a  holy  character ;  but  if  God  himself  does  this  work  in  us 
what  can  we  do  but  wait  ?"  And  so  men  have  from  year  to  year 
stood  indolent,  waiting  for  God. 

But  experience  teaches,  what  is  everywhere  implied  in  Scrip- 
ture, that  religion  is  not  a  substance  separate  from  the  action  of 
man ;  that  it  is  only  another  word  for  character ;  and  that  it  is 
developed  in  men — not  imputed  to  them.  Influences  are  brought  to 
bear ;  but  the  product  of  those  influences   is  grown  out  of  man. 


464  WOEKIIiG  OUT  OUE  OWN  SALVATION. 

Character  must  be    developed  from   pre-existing  materials  in  the 
human  soul. 

It  is  a  false  mental  philosophy  which  takes  any  other  view  than 
this.  And  so  far  from  our  being  commanded  to  wait  for  some  new 
quality,  or  some  new  attitude,  to  be  infixed  in  us,  we  are  com- 
manded to  work  out  our  own  salvable  character — that  is,  that  state, 
that  condition,  which  makes  salvation  possible  in  any  man;  that 
righteousness,  that  love,  that  faith  which  makes  it  possible  for  the 
human  soul  to  adhere  to  God. 
"  Work  out  your  own  salvation." 

In  other  words,  the  whole  moral  and  religious  life  is  put  upon 
the  same  platform  that  all  the  rest  of  man's  life  is  put  upon.  Here 
are  the  laws  ;  here  are  the  agencies  ;  here  are  the  instrumentalities ; 
and  men  acknowledge  that  they  are  competent  to  their  use  in  all 
other  directions  but  those  of  morality  and  spirituality  ;  and  the 
word  of  God  teaches  that  they  are  just  as  competent  to  their  use  in 
moral  and  spiritual  directions. 

"  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling." 

There  is  nothing  in  man's  physical  or  intellectual  organization ; 
there  is  nothing  in  his  personal  endowments  of  power  for  achieving 
material  results,  to  which  there  is  not  a  corresponding  adaptation 
in  man's  spiritual  faculties.  There  is  that  in  his  spiritual  nature 
which  answers  in  analogy  to  the  other  departments  of  his  being. 
There  is  no  sphere  of  human  existence  which  man's  natural  gifts 
will  not  qualify  him  for  if  he  makes  a  wise  use  of  them.  The  divine 
nature  takes  for  granted,  implies,  or  directly  teaches,  that  there  is 
an  adaptation,  a  preparation,  a  potency,  a  will  power,  an  executing 
force,  in  a  man,  by  which  he  can  become  spiritually,  as  well  as  men- 
tally and  physically,  what  God  designed  he  should  be  in  his  creation. 
And  to  teach  anything  else  is  untrue  in  mental  philosophy  and  in 
experience. 

Like  any  other  education,  religious  education  is  gradual.  It  is 
the  result  of  time  ;  it  is  the  result  of  thought  ;  it  is  the  result  of 
successive  efforts.  It  is  a  growth  ;  and  to  all  growths  belongs  the 
element  of  time.  No  man  ever  becomes  a  perfect  Christian  sud- 
denly. 

You  must  not  misunderstand  me,  as  if  I  would  set  aside  the 
doctrine  of  the  divine  influence.  Nor  must  you  suppose  that  I 
would  teach  you  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  great  and  sudden 
change  in  men's  dispositions  and  tendencies.  There  is.  But  it  is  a 
change  which  consummates.  It  is  a  change  which,  affecting  a  man's 
purposes,  affecting  a  man's  determinations  or  will,  leads  step  by  step 
to  those  changes  which  go  to  make  up  character ;  but  no  man  was 
ever  by  conversion  brought  into  a  perfect  Christian  state.     In  the 


WORKING  OUT  QUE  0 WN  SAL  VATION.  4G 5 

case  of  Paul  himself,  though  he  was  ordained  to  be  a  great  and 
mighty  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God,  tlie  work  hy  which  he  was 
brought  into  the  kingdom  was  a  work  which  required  years  and 
years  and  years.  And  the  experiences  which  he  has  recorded  in  his 
eloquent  letters,  are  experiences  wrought  out  just  as  years  are,  little 
by  little,  and  through  long  periods. 

We  are  encouraged  to  work  out  our  salvable  state,  or  our 
religious  character,  by  the  declaration  that  if  we  work,  we  shall  have 
divine  help. 

We  may  not  state  affirmatively,  that  the  great  elements  of 
Christian  life  are  wrought  out  in  men  little  by  little.  They  are 
never  suddenly  produced.  No  man  ever,  in  the  spring,  saw  the 
orchard,  within  the  space  of  one  hour,  clothed  with  leaves  and  blos- 
soms and  fruit.  First  comes  the  swelling  bud  and  the  immature 
leaf;  then  comes  the  cluster  of  leaves ;  then  comes  the  pink  prophecy 
of  a  floAver  ;  then  comes  the  beautiful  cluster  of  flowers  ;  and  then, 
after  the  air  has  been  perfumed  for  some  days  by  the  flowers,  comes 
the  tiny  sign  of  fruit.  And  this,  fed  for  weeks  and  months,  and 
nourished  through  the  whole  summer,  swells  itself  out,  but  still  is 
green,  and  sour,  and  unfit  for  us ;  and  it  is  only  when,  at  last,  the 
autumn  comes  with  its  kindly  ripening  influences,  developing  the 
final  flavoring  qualities,  that  it  is  rich  fruit  agreeable  to  the  taste. 
At  the  beginning  it  was  a  germ  that  had  in  it  all  that  was  developed 
afterward ;  but  it  had  none  of  its  substance  and  reality.  That  had 
to  be  unfolded. 

Now,  in  every  single  special  Christian  life,  we  go  through  the 
same  process  or  processes  of  a  far  away  beginning,  and  of  a  constant 
development  or  unfolding  or  ripening  toward  the  final  form.  For 
instance,  one  of  the  earliest  traits  that  belong  to  the  regenerate  char- 
acter, is  an  aspiration  for  righteousness,  a  desire  to  be  better  in 
thought  and  in  feeling.  No  man  has  aspiration  in  its  perfect  form  in 
the  beginning.  At  first  we  desire  to  correct  certain  faults.  It  is 
not  the  whole  character  that  we  conceive  of.  Aspiration  is  occa- 
sional. In  our  better  moments,  we  mourn  over  transgression.  We 
are  ashamed  of  sin.  We  make  good  resolutions.  We  long,  with 
uplifted  hands  and  uplifted  hearts  for  divine  help  to  overcome  easily 
besetting  sins. 

These  periods  are  at  the  beginning  comparatively  feeble,  and  at 
long  intervals,  that  touch  but  single  points  in  the  character.  But  as 
we  grow  from  year  to  year,  the  aspiration  begins  to  be  more  sym- 
metrical. It  goes  through  the  various  stages  of  the  aflEbctions  and 
the  moral  sensibilities,  and  finally  arrives  at  a  complete  Christian 
character.     Under  the  influence   of   aspiration  we  long  for  noble 


466  WOBKINO  OUT  OUR  OWN  SALVATION. 

traits,  for  higher  researches  in  them,  for  a  larger  spliere,  and  for  a 
more  perfect  conformity  to  the  divine  will ;  but  this  is  the  ultimate, 
not  the  beginning,  form.  We  begin  a  Christian  life  of  aspiration  at 
a  low  point  ;  and  the  command  is.  Work  this  out. 

So  it  is  with  the  trait  of  obedience.  When  we  first  attempt  to 
obey  the  better  law,  or  the  law  of  love  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  not 
only  are  we  far  from  potency,  but  we  are  far  from  understanding. 
We  know  very  little  of  what  that  law  is.  We  have  to  go  through 
a  varied  experience  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  it.  This  experience 
is  attended  with  more  or  less  mistakes  and  errors.  Every  man 
studies  his  lesson-book  of  obedience  as  the  child  at  school  studies 
his  lesson-book.  There  are  in  the  way  many  sufferings,  many  tears, 
many  poor  lessons,  many  shortcomings,  many  besetments  ;  but  little 
by  little  he  grows  in  knowledge  and  attainment ;  and  each  attain- 
ment leads  subsequently  to  a  stronger  desire  to  make  an  earnest 
forthputting  for  salvation.  And  this  element  of  growth,  or  pro- 
gression by  degrees,  is  invariable.  No  man  is  ever  born  into  Chris- 
tian character  so  but  that  obedience  to  the  law  of  God  is  a  gradual 
attainment.     It  is  a  thing  learned. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  musician  that  was  born  with  the  ability  to 
play  the  organ  or  any  other  instrument  ?  You  have  seen  many 
persons  in  whom  there  was  an  innate  musical  faculty  ;  but  not  on  i 
that  could  do  anything  in  music  without  education  and  without 
training. 

And  so,  although  we  have  our  spiritual  natures,  our  innate  ten- 
dencies to  things  virtuous  and  good,  they  are  all  obliged  to  conform 
to  this  law  of  education,  training,  drill.  And  God  says.  Work  out 
your  obedience.  As  this  is  the  law  of  our  nature,  it  is  the  law  of 
God's  grace.  And  he  is  patient  with  us.  He  is  long-suffering.  He 
knows,  when  he  undertakes  to  save  a  soul,  that  that  soul  will  not 
obey  from  the  beginning.  When  he  receives  a  soul  to  save  it,  he 
receives  it  as  an  imperfect  souL  He  takes  every  man  that  he  saves 
knowing  that  he  is  weak,  and  will  do  wrong.  Every  soul  that  he 
saves,  he  saves  with  all  these  contingencies. 

As  it  is  with  aspiration  and  obedience,  so  it  is  with  love  to  God — 
the  best  of  all  developments,  and  the  slowest  to  mature  in  the  soul. 
A  benevolent  disposition,  a  strong  spirit  of  love,  which  shall  temper, 
modify,  and  control  our  nature,  which  shall  spread  itself  out  as  a 
summer  of  the  soul  toward  those  who  are  around  about  us,  and 
which  shall  lift  itself  up  as  a  sacred  atmosphere  toward  God — this 
great  attainment  is  never  transferred  completed  from  the  soul  of 
God  to  the  soul  of  man.  It  is  that  which  we  work  for,  and  which, 
working  for  it,  we  miss  often  and  often  and  often.     But  little  by 


WOBKING  OUT  OUR  OWN  SALVATION.  467 

little  we  gain  it.  Little  by  little  the  horizon  grows  large.  Little 
by  little  the  sun  shines  brighter  to  our  eye.  No  man  ever  yet  learned 
to  love  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  his  neighbor  as  himself,  in  a 
day — nay,  nor  in  a  life-time  ;  for  that  is  a  lesson  which  is  forever 
being  learned,  and  is  never  completed  on  these  mortal  shores. 

So  it  is  with  sympathy  toward  men ;  so  it  is  with  humility ;  so  it 
is  with  meekness  ;  so  it  is  with  gentleness  ;  so  it  is  with  patience  ;  so 
it  is  with  every  single  one  of  those  Christian  traits  which  are  so  fre- 
quently registered  in  the  Word  of  God.  No  man,  because  he  is  just 
awakened,  and  converted,  and  rejoices  in  God's  forgiving  love,  and 
is  brought  into  the  church,  should  suppose  that  he  has  all  these 
things  set  in  him,  and  ready  for  perfect  action. 

The  apostle  says  that  ice  are  GocTs  husbandry.  Our  souls  are 
his  farms.  And  when  God  begins  his  work  in  your  soul,  and  seeks 
for  humility,  and  meekness,  and  love,  he  says  to  you,  "  Work  out 
these  traits.  Plow  for  them.  Sow  seed  for  them.  And  when  they 
come  up,  cultivate  them.  And  when  they  are  ripe,  garner  and  har- 
vest them,"  Every  one  of  these  traits  is  to  be  made  subject  mat- 
ter of  careful  thought,  much  prayer,  much  endeavor,  much  skillful 
education.  And  that  is  the  interpretation,  to  a  large  extent,  of  the 
divine  providences  which  are  cooperating  with  grace,  and  are  giving 
men  opportunity  to  develop  these  traits. 

How  shall  men  learn  to  be  patient,  if  everything  is  just  as  they 
want  it  ?  How  shall  men  learn  perseverance,  if  they  have  everything 
without  endeavor  ?  When  men  are  crossed,  Avhen  their  plans  are 
subverted,  when  they  find  the  world  bearing  heavily  upon  their 
shoulders,  God  is  saying  to  them,  "  Work  out  patience ;  work  out 
perseverance ;  work  out  courage."  When  men  find  that  pride  domi- 
nates in  them,  and  that  by  pride  they  are  led  into  trifling,  and  into 
fault-finding,  and  perhaps  into  interrogating  God,  saying,  "  Why  am 
I  thus  dealt  with,  O  my  Father  ?"  God  is  saying,  "  Work  out  hu- 
mility ;  work  out  gentleness."  Are  circumstances  depressed  ?  Is 
home  scowling  and  cloudy  ?  Is  life  obstructed  ?  Do  you  from  day 
to  day  find  yourself  kicking  against  the  pricks  ?  The  providence  of 
God  is  saying,  "  Work  out,  by  these  helps,  your  own  salvation." 
Educate  yourself  in  those  moral  traits  which,  if  you  bear  up  man- 
fully, and  act  the  part  of  a  Christian,  under  such  circumstances, 
cannot  fail  to  be  developed  and  established  in  you. 

But  we  are  commanded  in  working  out  our  own  salvation,  to 
develop  in  ourselves  those  traits  of  character  which  shall  make  us 
like  Christ,  and  make  it  possible  for  Christ  to  be  companionable 
with  us,  and  to  save  us  throughout  all  eternity.  We  are  commanded 
to  do  this  loith  fear  and  trembling. 

Is  it,  then,  that  our  God  is  capricious?    Is  it  that  we  are  like. 


468  WOBKING  OUT  OUB  OWN  SALVATION. 

courtiers  in  an  Eastern  despotism,  who  are  liable  to  be  supplanted, 
and  are  suspicious  of  each  other  all  the  time  ?  Is  our  God  one  that 
inspires  fear  ?  No.  What  is  meant  by  /ear  and  trembling  is  the 
antithesis  of  conceit.  It  is  the  antithesis  of  that  contentment  which 
springs  from  overweening  confidence  or  indifference.  If  men  think 
they  are  so  nearly  good  that  they  do  not  need  to  be  anxious,  the 
word  of  the  Lord  to  them  is,  "  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his  own 
conceit  ?  there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  him ;"  but  if  a  man,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  such  a  sense  of  his  real  deficiency,  that  he  feels 
the  need  of  education  in  divine  things ;  if  he  says,  "  The  work  is  so 
great  that  it  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  putting  forth  of  every 
endeavor,  then  there  will  be  that  /ear  and  trembling  of  which  the 
text  speaks — that  natural  insight,  that  alertness,  that  earnest  cir- 
cumspection, which  every  man  has  who  addresses  himself  to  a  thing 
which  is  valued,  and  Avhich  stands  in  distinction  from  that  atone- 
ment which  a  man  has  who  thinks  he  is  well  enough  off. 

At  any  rate,  bring  to  this  work  that  earnestness  which  men  bring 
to  things  which  they  desire  and  mean  to  have  in  secular  life.  There 
is  nothing  in  this  world  which  requires  more  spirit,  more  purpose, 
more  watching,  than  this  work.  There  is  no  more  various  culture 
than  that  which  is  derived  from  seeking  those  great  ends  which  are 
set  before  every  one  in  a  Christian  life.  We  cannot  afford  to  be  in- 
different Christians.  We  cannot  make  progress  in  Christian  life,  if 
we  live  in  a  state  of  supine  indifference.  We  are  to  work  out  our 
own  salvation  as  earnest  men  work,  thinking  before,  thinking  after, 
full  of  resources,  full  of  desires,  as  men  are  when  they  are  searching 
for  things  which  their  whole  heart  is  set  iipon. 

It  is  not,  then,  servile  fear  and  trembling,  but  generous,  manly, 
courageous,  wholesome  fear  and  trembling,  which  come  fi-om  the  best 
feelings,  acting  in  the  best  directions,  and  inspired  by  the  best  in- 
fluences, that  we  are  called  upon  to  be  actuated  by  in  working  out 
our  salvation.  And  surely  the  apostle  teaches  us  that  every  man 
needs  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling — that 
is  to  say,  with  unceasing  vigilance,  with  untiring  watchfulness.  So 
many  are  the  things  which  obscure  the  mind ;  so  many  are  the  things 
which  tone  down  a  man's  purpose  ;  so  many  are  the  diversions  which 
load  the  soul  with  care,  and  obstruct  a  man's  purpose ;  so  many  are 
the  diversions  which  lead  a  man  from  the  goal  toward  which  he  is 
aiming,  that  no  man  can  succeed  in  maintaining  a  religious  life  ex- 
cept at  the  price  of  continual  thought,  and  continual  faith,  and  con- 
tinual determination,  and  continual  dependence  upon  the  grace  of 
God. 

This  brings  us  to  the  last  thought ;  namely,  that  all  our  work  to 
secure  our  own  salvation  would  be  most  hopeless,  if  we  should  work 


WORKING  OUT  OUR  OWN  SALVATION.  469 

unaided.  There  must  be  this  spring,  this  courage,  this  perseverance, 
this  motive-power  on  our  part ;  and  yet,  these  high  and  noble  am- 
bitions will  be  in  vain  unless  God  works  with  us.  P'or  it  is  God  that 
inspires  us  to  this  life.  It  is  God  that  works  in  us  to  will  and  to  do 
of  his  good  pleasure. 

It  is  not  to  supersede,  but  to  incite  and  to  guide,  every  human 
faculty,  that  the  spirit  of  God  is  given.  It  is  quite  a  vain  question 
whether  a  man  might,  by  himself,  by  the  natural  force  of  his  facul- 
ties, gain  everything  that  he  desires.  That  which  is  most  to  the 
point  is,  that  there  is  in  the  universe  a  provision  by  which  men  are 
helped.  Grace  reveals  it.  But  it  is  not  a  provision  which  helps  men 
who  do  not  desire  to  rise  above  the  ordinary  physical  conditions  of 
life,  above  the  vulgar  conditions  of  society,  above  the  natural  and 
selfish  state  in  which  man  finds  himself. 

I  Men  sometimes  think  that  the  way  of  grace  is  a  hard  way,  and 
that  the  whole  economy  of  this  life  is  in  favor  of  the  ungracious  and 
unrcgenerate  state.  Men  Chink  that  the  whole  retinue  of  influences 
in  society  fight  against  grace  in  the  soul.  And  to  a  certain  extent 
they  do.  But  forever  running  through  nature,  through  providence, 
through  human  life,  there  is  the  mind  and  thought  and  heart  of  God 
brooding  upon  all  human  hearts,  and  working  in  them  "  to  will  and 
to  do  of  his  good  pleasure,"  There  is  not  a  soul  that  does  not  feel 
drawn  by  the  divine  brooding  soul,  though  it  may  not  know  from 
whence  the  power  comes  which  draws  it.  Men  have  inspirations 
from  God  which  they  cannot  account  for.  Strong  influences,  draw- 
ing even  bad  men,  and  leading  them  to  do  good  things  while  they 
are  in  a  state  of  nature,  are  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  spreads  it- 
self abroad  through  the  earth,  even  as  the  sun ;  that  strives  with 
those  who  know,  and  those  who  do  not  know  what  it  is ;  that  strives 
I  believe,  with  those  who  do  not  know  the  Gospel ;  that  works  with 
the  heathen;  that  ministers  to  the  Gentiles;  that  sheds  the  lio-ht  of 
truth  upon  those  who  shall  never  see  more  than  the  twilight  in  this 
world.  This  great  Father-Spirit,  this  great  loving  Spirit,  this  life- 
giving  Spirit,  is  universal.  The  earth,  from  horizon  to  horizon  is 
filled  with  it.  And  there  is  no  place  where  a  soul  can  be  that  to  it 
is  not  conjoined  the  influences  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Attempt  any- 
thing, overcome  anything,  attain  anything,  you  are  not  alone.  You 
are  not  simply  left  to  your  -endeavors.  God  works  in  you.  And 
there  is  the  promise  of  success. 

It  has  been  said,  "  If  it  is  God  that  works,  how  shall  it  be  man 
also  ?  "  Suppose  we  should  have  a  reasoning  organ ;  and  suppose  that 
organ  should  say  to  Beethoven,  who  was  sitting  down  before  the 
keyboards,  "  Now,  either  you  will  play,  or  I  will ;  but  how  can  you 


470  WORKING  OUT  OUB  OWN  SALVATION. 

and  I  play  together?"  "How  can  we  do  anything  else  ?"  Beethoven 
says.  The  organ  perforins  according  to  his  touches  on  the  keys ;  but 
if  there  were  no  organ,  his  thoughts  would  lack  exjjression.  The 
thinking  mind  of  the  artist  expresses  itself  through  the  help  of  the 
instrument.  And  so  those  noble  symphonies  flow  out  which  entrance 
the  world.     The  apostle  says  : 

"  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God 
which  worketh  in  you." 

And  philosophy  says,  "If  it  is  God  that  works  in  man,  how  does 
man  work  ?"  Is  there  no  such  thing  as  cooperation  ?  Is  there  no 
such  thing  as  inspiration  ? 

When  the  child  is  working,  and  the  mother  stands  at  the  door 
and  says,  "  Bravely  done,  my  child !"  is  there  no  new  light  in  the 
eye  ?  is  there  no  alacrity  added  to  the  hand  ?  is  there  no  ambition 
excited  to  do  yet  better  ?  Does  not  the  mother  work  in  the  child  to 
will  and  to  do  the  things  which  the  child  cannot  do  of  itself  ? 

In  the  midst  of  battle,  men  who  have  unflinchingly  borne  until 
they  are  well-nigh  cut  off",  are  thinking  of  retreat ;  and  they  hear 
the  voice  of  their  captain  crying  out  to  them,  and  sending  a  thrill 
through  the  air.  The  result  is  that  they  nerve  themselves  up  once 
more,  and  victory  comes  with  this  last  effort.  There  is  success  when 
another  mighty  soul  is  working  in  them,  inspiring  them  to  will  and 
to  do. 

A  wandering,  weary,  spent,  hungry  traveler  sits  down,  benumbed, 
to  give  up  in  despair.  He  is  met  by  a  hunter.  But  is  his  weari- 
ness cured?  Is  the  cold  dissipated  ?  Is  his  hunger  satisfied?  No. 
But  the  hunter  says  to  him,  "  Be  a  man.  Rouse  up  what  is  in  you. 
Follow  me.  And  now  you  shall  not  wander  in  a  circle,  and  in  vain. 
I  know  the  way  ;  and  if  you  will  make  a  few  more  eff^orts  you  will  be 
safe."  The  hunter  works  in  the  man  to  will  and  to  do  for  his  own 
salvation.     He  brings  him  out  of  danger. 

Men  are  in  a  thousand  ways  thrown  into  circumstances  in  which 
another  man  can  develop  force  in  them.  And  blessed  be  God,  there 
is  a  Spirit  which  works  within  us,  and  develops  a  power  in  us  which 
teaches  us  how  to  accomplish  what  we  will,  and  guides  us  by  its  in- 
spiration to  successful  results.  This  is  the  whole  hope  of  Christian 
life  which  is  left  to  us.  They  who  fall  back  into  somnolency  and 
pride  and  selfishness  are  without  its  comfort ;  but  we  who  wake  up 
to  a  sense  of  our  privileges,  and  avail  ourselves  of  this  proffered 
help,  are  under  the  administration  of  a  Father  who  loves  us  better 
than  we  love  ourselves,  and  who  is  working  intelligence  and  inspira- 
tion and  purposes  in  us,  and  leading  us  on  step  by  step ;  and  it  will 
by  and  by  complete  in  us  this  glorious  work  of  emancipation  from 
sin,  this  grand  establishment  df  a  righteous  character,  and  bring  us 


WOBEINO  OUT  OUB  0 WN  SAL VA TION.  471 

into  the  fullness  of  his  power  and  love,  and  into  the  joy  and  victory 
of  the  upper  kingdom. 

And  now  I  say,  Christian  brethren,  in  the  language  of  the  apostle, 
"Workout  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling;  for  it  is  God 
which  workoth  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good  pleasure." 

God  will  help  you.  Try  higher  flights — God  will  help  you. 
Try  more  difticult  things — God  will  help  you.  Do  not  be  afraid  to 
venture  into  any  path  of  Christian  life.  Count  yourselves  unworthy 
of  nothing.  Aim  at  the  best  and  highest  things — it  is  God  that  is 
helping  you. 

And  to  those  who  have  stood  wistfully  looking  at  the  Christian 
life,  wandering  hither  and  thither,  not  knowing  M'here  to  go,  and 
fearing  to  join  the  people  of  God  lest  they  should  bring  reproach 
upon  the  church  of  Christ,  I  say,  Venture,  O  timid  souls  !  enter 
upon  a  Christian  life.  Commit  your  souls  to  God.  Cling  to  Him 
to  whom  you  are  dearer  than  any  babe  to  its  mother.  The  heart 
of  God  knows  how  to  love  as  the  heart  of  no  human  being  knows 
how  to  love.  Men  are  dear  to  God ;  and  he  says  to  those  who  come 
to  him,  *'  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  you  out,  but  will  give  you  eternal 
life. 

Venture  upon  God.  Enter  upon  the  Christian  life.  Enlarge 
your  conceptions,  your  ambitions,  your  aspirations.  Seek  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  remember  that  it  is  God  who  leads 
you  to  that  living  Spirit  which  shall  help  you  in  working  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ;  for  it  is  God  that  worketh 
in  you  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. 


472  WOUEING  OUT  OUB  OWN  SAL VA TION. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  draw  near  to  thee,  this  evening,  not  as  to  one  strange,  or  reluctant  to 
grant  mercy ;  for  thou  art  more  willing  to  gi-ant  good  gifts  to  us,  our  Father, 
than  we  ai-e  willing  to  grant  good  gifts  to  our  children.  Thou  art  more 
solicitous  to  bless  us  than  we  are  to  be  blessed  of  thee ;  and  thy  love  toward 
us  is  greater  and  wiser  and  more  full  of  mercy  than  our  own  love  of  our- 
selves. And  we  draw  near  to  thee  as  our  Shelter,  our  Refuge,  our  Hope,  our 
Life.  All  that  we  have  is  of  thee.  In  thee  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being.  Thou  art  filling  with  thy  presence  all  things.  "Wherever  is  life,  is 
God.  Wherever  is  law,  thy  will  is  known.  Wherever  things  are  accomplish- 
ing beneficent  ends,  there  is  thy  wisdom.  Thou  art  felt  throughout  all  thy 
boimdless  domain ;  and  things  praise  thee  in  heaven  and  upon  the  earth. 
Oh,  that  our  hearts  were  attuned  to  this  universal  rejoicing,  and  that  we 
might  be  delivered  from  sin,  and  so  brought  into  sympathy  with  thee,  that 
our  hearts  should  evermore  praise  thee,  and  rejoice  in  thy  work ! 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us,  to-night,  such  access  as 
children  have.  May  we  come  here,  bringing  the  confession  of  our  sins.  Open 
our  hearts  freely  before  God.  Look  thou  upon  us,  and  see  altogether  what 
is  in  us.  Heal  that  which  is  sick ;  forgive  that  which  is  amiss ;  strengthen 
that  which  is  weak ;  guide  that  which  is  erring ;  and  inspire  us,  in  all  parts 
of  our  souls,  with  an  earnest  desire  to  live  so  as  to  please  thee  here,  and  to 
inherit  and  enjoy  thee  hereafter. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  the  enlivening  influence  of  thy 
Spirit  upon  the  word  of  truth.  May  it  be  spoken  with  sincerity  and  sim- 
pUcity ;  and  may  it  have  in  it  nourishment  for  those  who  shall  hear. 

We  pray  that  thy  Churches  may  abound  with  thy  Spirit.  May  those  who 
make  known  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  to-night  be  blessed  of  God. 
May  their  words  not  fall  to  the  ground  useless.  As  seed  that  falls  upon  good 
ground,  may  they  bring  forth  an  hundred  fold. 

We  pray  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  the  efforts  made  by  thy  peo- 
ple everywhere  for  the  reformation  of  morals,  and  for  the  establishment  of 
righteousness. 

We  pray  for  the  purification  of  our  laws,  and  our  magistracy.  We  pray 
for  the  vindication  of  justice  throughout  this  great  land.  Thou  hast  indeed 
made  this  country  eminent  by  thy  benefactions.  Thou  art  causing  it  to 
grow  in  strength  and  in  riches.  Deliver  us  from  selfishness,  and  from  avarice, 
and  from  covetousness,  and  from  infidelity.  Deliver  us  from  all  cruelty,  and 
all  desire  to  despoil  the  weak.  May  we  long  to  have  this  land  consecrated  to 
truth  and  justice  and  humanity. 

And  be  thou,  O  God,  with  the  counselors  of  the  nation.  Guide  our  rulers. 
Grant  that  they  may  be  God-following  men,  and  that  they  may  walk  in  the 
fulfillment  of  thy  will. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  spread  the  knowledge  of  truth  over  all  the 
sea,  and  through  all  the  continents.  Everywhere  may  there  be  a  turning 
unto  the  Lord.  Oh,  that  the  long  lingering  days  of  darkness  might  flee  away ! 
Oh,  that  the  bright  days  of  prediction  which  shall  bring  peace  and  songs 
might  come !  Oh,  for  the  day  when  the  earth  shall  not  groan  and  travail  in 
pain !  Oh,  for  the  universal  diffusion  of  holiness,  when  peace  and  prosperity 
shall  settle  down  in  all  our  borders,  and  no  man  shall  have  occasion  to  say  to 
his  neighbor,  Know  ye  the  Lord?  for  they  shall  all  know  him,  from  the  least 
unto  the  greatest!  May  we  in  our  place,  and  according  to  the  measure  of 
our  strength,  labor  for  this  blessed  consummation,  evermore  saying.  Thy 
kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

And  now,  Lord,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  grant  us  thy  blessing. 


WOBEING  OUT  OUB  OWN  SALVATION.  473 

not  according  to  our  feeble  petition,  not  according  to  the  wisdom  with  which 
we  make  our  request,  but  according  to  the  greatness  of  thy  mercy.  In  thee 
we  desire  evermore  to  find  the  measure  of  benefaction.  We  desire  that  thou 
wilt  take  counsel  with  thine  own  heart.  Bless  us  not  as  we  deserve,  but  as 
thine  infinite  love  and  kindness  prompt  thee.  Manifest  thy  tender  mercy 
and  long-suffering  goodness  toward  us  in  days  to  come,  as  thou  hast  in  days 
that  are  past. 

And  when,  at  last,  we  shall  have  passed  through  light,  and  through  dark- 
ness, and  through  trouble  and  sorrow,  and  through  sin  and  repentance,  and 
through  all  the  phases  of  life,  bring  us,  with  all  thy  people,  to  that  rest  which 
remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit, 
shall  be  praise  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  accept  our  thanks  for  the  cheer  and  comfort  of  thy  Word. 
How  art  thou  to  us  like  a  Father  when  we  hear  that  Word !  When  we  listen 
to  the  philosophies  of  men,  thou  seemest  to  go  away,  and  art  afar  off,  and  art 
hid  behind  thy  glory.  And  we  call,  and  no  one  answers;  and  we  stretch  out 
our  hand,  and  no  one  takes  it.  But  when  we  come  unto  thy  word,  or  hear  it 
spoken,  how  gentle  art  thou  I  how  near  thou  art !  how  full  of  sympathy  art 
thou !  how  art  thou  unto  men  as  a  father  is  to  his  children. 

We  thank  thee  for  all  these  revelations  of  our  God  to  us.  We  rejoice  that 
heaven  is  full  of  this  sympathizing  God.  We  rejoice  that  the  earth  and  all 
the  courses  of  nature  are  filled  full  of  the  might  and  power  of  this  God  of 
love.  Thou  that  didst  suffer  that  men  might  not  suffer ;  thou  that  didst  give 
thy  life  that  life  might  be  brought  to  all  thy  creatures ;  thou  that  art  long- 
suffering,  and  art  working  with  natm-e,  with  all  the  forces  of  heaven  and 
earth  for  our  good,  remember  evermore  the  weak  and  the  needy. 

Oh,  grant  that  to  a  conception  of  thy  glory  men's  eyes  may  be  opened, 
and  men's  hearts  enlarged,  and  that  men  may  be  led  to  take  hold  of  thee, 
and  to  feel  thy  power  taking  hold  of  them ! 

And  now,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  of  truth  spoken 
this  night.  May  it  sink  down  into  the  heart,  and  do  good,  bringing  forth  an 
hundred  fold.    We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 


XXV. 

The  Preacher's  Commission. 


THE  PEEACHER'S  COMMISSIOI. 


"  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  teaching  them  to  ob- 
serve all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you:  and,  lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."— Matt.  XXVIII.,  19,  20. 


This  represents  the  end  of  our  Lord's  ministry  upon  earth  ;  and 
it  is  familiarly  called  the  commission  which  he  gave  to  his  apostles, 
by  which  they  were  thrice  enjoined  to  become  preachers  of  the 
Gospel.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  the  beginning  it  was  addressed  to 
them  exclusively,  and  for  the  very  obvious  reason  that  there  was 
nobody  else  with  him.  They  were  his  companions.  This  was  spoken 
to  them  at  Jerusalem,  over  beyond  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  near  Bethany.  This  was  his  familiar  band  that  surrounded 
him.  And  he  commanded  them — all  that  were  with  him — to  go 
forth  and  become  teachers  of  the  new  life,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  new  kingdom. 

The  right  to  teach,  to  administer  ordinances,  to  govern  churches, 
has  been  supposed  to  be  limited  to  a  very  few.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed that  it  was  a  right  which  inhered  in,  as  it  were,  a  spiritual 
corporation,  and  that  it  was  transmissible,  and  that  it  was  trans- 
mitted by  definitely  authorized  parties  with  the  divine  sanction ; 
and  that  no  man  not  specially  appointed  to  it  had  a  right  to  intrude 
into  the  office  of  the  sacred  ministry.  It  has  been  supposed  that 
men  must  first  be  called  to  preach  ;  and  that  secondly  they  must  be 
authorized  by  God's  church,  through  its  appropriate  officers,  to  take 
up  the  vocation  of  preaching,  having  been  called  to  it. 

I  suppose  it  is  best  that  an  order  of  men  should  exist,  wlio  shall 
give  themselves  exclusively  to  the  work  of  teaching  and  preaching 
religious  truths.  It  is  best,  however,  not  on  any  ground  of  historic 
authority  ;  not  on  the  ground  on  which  the  church  has  put  it ;  it  is 
best  for  the  same  reason  that  it  is  best  that  there  should  be  an  or- 
der of  men  who  shall  attend  to  the  sick  ;  that  there  shall  be  an  or- 
der of  men  who  shall  attend  to  the  admmistration  of  law.  In  other 
words,  division  of  labor  has  been  found  to  be  wise.     The  adaptation 

Sunday  Evening,  Feb.  12,  1R71.     Lesson  :  2  Thess.  IT..  16, 17 :  III..  1-16.     Hrjiya 
(Plymouth  Collection) :  Nos.  1008,  981, 1163. 


478  TEE  PBEACHEB'8  COMMISSION. 

of  a  man's  whole  energy  to  certain  special  ends  makes  the  accom- 
plishment of  those  ends  more  certain,  and  certain  to  a  better  pur- 
pose than  where  they  are  left  to  the  lower  training  of  all  men. 
Therefore  there  should  be  an  order  of  men  whose  business  it  is  to 
make  known  moral  religious  truth,  for  that  single  practical  reason — 
just  as  schools  will  be  better  if  there  are  professional  teachers  ;  just 
as  each  particular  kind  of  industry  will  be  better  if  there  are  men 
exclusively  educated  to  that  kind  of  industry ;  just  as  moral  affairs 
will  flourish  better  if  there  is  an  order  of  men  who  adapt  themselves 
exclusively  to  the  propagation  of  moral  ideas  and  moral  influences. 

There  were  two  reasons  why  the  apostles  had  this  commission 
given  to  them.  The  first  I  have  stated — that  they  were  the  only 
ones  who  were  present.  The  other  reason,  which  expired  with  the 
apostles,  and  which  will  never  come  again,  was  that  they  went  forth 
in  the  beginning  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  be  witnesses  of 
the  life  and  deeds  of  Jesus  Christ  himself  They  were  personal 
witnesses.  And  that  which  gave  them  authority,  in  part,  as  apos- 
tles, was  that  they  spoke  that  which  they  Joiew,  and  testified  that 
which  they  had  seen.  And  so,  when  Judas  fell  out  of  the  band,  and 
they  were  to  select  another  disciple  in  his  place,  they  selected  from 
among  those  that  had  companied  with  the  Lord  from  the  beginning, 
that  being  an  indispensable  condition.  And  when  Paul  was  select- 
ed, he  came  in  by  reason  of  the  revelation  which  was  made  to  him 
miraculously.  And  he  declared  again  and  again,  that  he  also,  as 
one  born  out  of  due  time,  had  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Now,  with  the  primitive  church  this  part  of  the  apostolic  work 
ceased.  No  man  can  now  be  a  witness  of  the  facts  Avhich  occurred 
two  thousand  years  ago.  No  man  can  put  any  emphasis  at  all  on 
that  which  was  one  of  the  most  emphatic  points  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  ministry. 

It  is  held  by  some,  that  only  those  have  a  right  to  preach  who 
have  received  permission  from  that  apostolic  body  which  has  per- 
petuated itself  historically  by  the  transmission  of  virtue  from  per- 
son to  person  clear  down  to  our  time.  It  is  held  that  there  inheres 
in  the  church  both  authority  and  virtue  by  which  men  may  be  set 
apart  to  preach  the  Gospel ;  and  that  they  who  are  thus  set  apart 
may  minister  in  sacred  affairs. 

But  we  believe  the  Christian  ministry  to  be  as  open  to  all  men 
as  any  other  profession  in  civil  society.  And  there  is  no  more  vir- 
tue required  of  a  man  who  becomes  a  life-long  pi'cacher  of  the  Gos- 
pel than  of  a  man  who  becomes  a  lawyer,  a  physician,  a  teacher,  or 
an  engineer.  No  other  conditions  should  be  imposed  on  one  than  on 
the  others.     That  is  to  say,  adaptation  to  the  calling  is  the  only  es- 


TEE  PBEACnEE'8  COMMISi^ION.  479 

sential  thing.  No  man  is  called  to  any  profession  unless  he  has 
a  capacity  for  it ;  and  any  man  is  called  to  whatever  profession  he 
is  qualified,  by  his  talent  and  training,  to  successfully  carry  on. 
This  is  the  general  law  of  liberty  in  society  ;  and  the  ministry  is 
not  an  exception  to  it.  The  church  is  not  a  close  corporation.  The 
claim  that  it  is,  is  invalid,  and  ought  to  be  spurned.  It  belongs  to  all. 
And  every  man  lias  a  right  to  come  personally  to  God,  without  the 
help  of  priest,  or  any  help,  if  he  can.  And  it  is  his  own  inherent 
right,  it  is  a  right  which  he  derives,  not  through  the  church,  but  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  to  make  known  any  truth  which  his  heart  believes, 
to  go  forth  and  preach  it,  if  he  pleases,  without  ordination. 

It  is  precisely  in  religious  matters  as  it  was  in  civil  matters. 
There  was  a  time  when  it  was  supposed  that  common  men  had  no 
civil  rights.  They  were  all  supposed  to  be  stored  in  the  king.  And 
by  mutation  it  came  to  be  supposed  that  the  rights  of  men  were 
stored  in  society,  and  that  society  conferred  them.  But  we  have 
now  come  to  a  better  time  ;  and  we  hold  that  there  is  an  inherent 
right  in  every  man,  by  virtue  of  his  sonship  to  God,  to  all  the  privi- 
leges which  any  other  man  enjoys.  We  hold  that  the  individual 
receives  no  rights  from  government,  but  that  government  derives 
its  rights  from  the  individual.  And  as  it  is  with  government,  so  it 
is  Avith  society.  And  there  is  to  come  a  democratic  view  of  the 
Christian  ministry  by  which  it  shall  be  understood  that  it  is  not  a 
gift  conferred  by  those  who  are  in  authority,  upon  the  common  peo- 
ple, but  that  it  is  a  right  which  inheres  in  the  piety  and  relationship 
of  every  child  of  God. 

Whoever  can  preach  and  wants  to  preach,  may  preach,  all  the 
world  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  The  power  to  do  the  work, 
adaptation  to  it,  and  the  wish  to  do  it,  is  enough.  Let  me  see  a 
man's  work,  and  I  will  tell  you  whether  he  is  called  to  the  ministry 
or  not. 

If  I  go  into  a  man's  studio,  and  find  execrable  pictures  there,  I 
may  be  polite  enough  not  to  say  anything  ;  but  if  I  am  compelled 
by  the  man's  arrogance  or  vanity  to  speak,  I  shall  say,  "My  friend, 
you  have  mistaken  your  profession."  "  Not  at  all,"  he  may  perhaps 
say  ;  "  you  are  mistaken  in  your  criticism.  I  have  been  to  school  to 
all  the  appropriate  artistic  authorities  ;  I  have  been  in  Rome,  and 
painted  there ;  I  have  painted  in  Paris  and  London,  and  here  in  New 
York  ;  I  have  credentials  from  men  and  institutions  all  the  world 
over  ;  and  do  not  these  things  make  me  a  painter  ? "  My  reply 
would  be,  "  The  power  to  make  good  pictures  can  make  you  a  good 
painter,  and  nothing  else  can."  All  the  parchments  in  creation  can- 
not make  a  man  a  good  painter.     And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  a  man 


480  TEE  PBEACEEE'S  COMMISSION. 

paints  well  he  does  not  need  parchments.  He  has  his  credentials  in 
his  training  and  drill.  And  there  is  no  difference  between  the  min- 
istry and  any  other  profession  in  this  respect.  He  who  wants  to 
devote  himself  to  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry  exclusively, 
does  not  need  to  ask  permission  of  any  authority  except  God's  good 
o-race.  It  is  a  permission  which  neither  the  church  nor  the  hierarchy 
has  the  power  to  grant.  To  his  own  master  a  man  standeth  or 
falleth,  in  the  pulpit  as  much  as  anywhere  else. 

Whoever,  then,  is  called,  may  preach.  But  what  is  a  call  ?  There 
are  many  who  suppose  it  to  be  a  strong  impression  borne  in  upon  a 
man  from  without.  There  are  many  who  suppose  that  it  is  some 
mighty  impi'ession  which  comes  to  a  man,  it  may  be  through 
a  dream ;  or  that  it  is  some  down-brooding  influence  which  feels  at 
some  meeting,  or  while  he  is  laboring  in  the  field,  and  which  seems 
to  come  right  from  the  clouds  upon  him. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  there  are  no  such  impressions  or 
influences,  and  that  they  are  not  of  divine  origin.  They  may  or  may 
not  be,  according  to  the  facts.  But  what  I  should  like  to  emphasize 
is,  that  while  these  may  be  included  in  a  call  to  the  ministry,  they 
are  not  descriptive  of  it.  They  are  not  required  in  a  call  to  the 
Christian  ministry.  Such  a  call  is  based  on  the  ground  of  wise 
judgments,  and  not  on  any  mysterious  or  imaginative  impression. 
That  may  be  an  auxiliary,  but  it  is  not  the  characteristic  thing.  A 
right  judgment  it  is  that  calls  a  man  to  the  ministry. 

On  what  ground,  then,  is  this  judgment  to  be  formed  ?  Is  there 
anything  more  mysterious  in  forming  one's  judgment  in  regard  to 
entering  upon  the  Christian  ministry  than  in  regard  to  enter- 
ing upon  any  other  vocation  ?  Religion  has  been  supposed  to 
be  a  mystery.  It  is  no  more  a  mystery  than  anything  else.  Ililig'o:i 
stands  in  God's  original  nature  of  things,  and  not  in  the  nature  of 
corrupt  schools,  or  schools  of  perversion.  Religion  is  pi-ovided  for 
in  the  original  constitution  of  the  world,  as  much  as  any  science,  or 
other  element  of  progress.  There  are  some  mysteries;  but  these  are 
in  realms  beyond  where  the  human  mind  reaches.  They  exist  outside 
of  the  line  where  man's  knowledge  ceases.  What  we  mean  by 
mystery  is  ignorance.  And  so  there  is  mystery  in  religion,  just  as 
there  is  mystery  in  every  other  direction.  But  in  forming  one's 
judgment  as  to  whether  he  shall  be  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  or  not, 
the  mind  is  to  proceed  by  precisely  the  same  steps,  and  by  the  use 
of  precisely  the  same  kind  of  materials  as  in  forming  one's  judgment 
on  any  other  subject, 

A  man  asks  himself,  "  Shall  I  go  into  the  army  ?"  He  instantly 
raises  the  question  of  fitness,  of  taste,  of  desire.     And  as  he  deter- 


THE  FEEACEEE'S  COMMISSION,  481 

mines  the  facts  in  regard  to  these  elements,  he  chooses.  A  man  asks 
himself,  "  Shall  I  devote  myself  to  art  ?"  Immediately  the  question 
presents  itself,  "  Have  you  a  taste  for  it  ?  Are  you  trained  toward 
it  ?  Do  you  feel  that  you  have  mental  qualities  which  adapt  you  to 
it  ?  Do  you  find  that  you  have  the  suggestive  mind  and  pliant 
hand  which  it  requires?  Have  you  the  interest  and  zeal  in  it  which 
will  be  likely  to  give  you  success?"  On  those  facts  you  pass  judg- 
ment, and  form  a  decision.  A  man  asks  himself,  "  Shall  I  become  a 
sea-faring  man  ?"  He  thinks  of  all  his  chances  in  life,  and  selects 
that  pursuit,  if  at  all,  for  good  reasons.  "  Shall  I  be  a  civil  engi- 
neer ?  What  shall  I  be  ?"  Men  look  at  themselves,  at  their  oppor- 
tunities, tastes  and  adaptations,  and  then  come  to  their  judg- 
ments. 

Precisely  the  same  thing  takes  place  in  regard  to  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel.     Personal  fitness  is  the  great  test. 

What,  then,  are  the  requisites  ?  First,  and  far  above  any  other, 
is  a  nature  adapted  to  generate  moral  truths  ;  and  a  nature  which, 
if  educated  and  stimulated,  is  qualified  to  produce  impressions  of 
morality  upon  others.  Although  men  may  be  comparatively  barren 
in  this  direction,  and  although,  notwithstanding  this,  they  may  have 
a  reasonably  successful  ministry,  because  they  are  wise  administra- 
tors and  managers,  yet  the  ministry  is  a  body  of  men  distinctly 
called  of  God  to  promote  moral  truth.  And  there  is  as  much  genius 
for  moral  thought  as  for  artistic  thought,  or  mathematical  thought, 
or  engineering  thought.  Men  inherit  or  receive  certain  tendencies 
in  their  birth.  The  prophet  Jeremiah  declared  that  he  was  called 
to  be  a  prophet  from  his  mothers  womb.  That  was  the  way  of  ex- 
pressing it  in  his  day.  We  should  say  that  he  had  a  constitutional 
tendency  to  the  profession  into  which  he  went.  There  are  men  who 
have  a  constitutional  predisposition  to,  or  inspiration  for,  equity, 
veneration,  spiritual  love,  things  high  and  beautiful.  There  are  men 
whose  natures  tend  toward  sympathy  and  affection  and  beneficence. 
And  they  become  God's  natural  interj^reters  of  moral  and  spiritual 
ideas.  They  are  men  who  have  power  when  they  come  to  impress 
l^'hose  ideas  upon  others.  I  do  not  say  that  every  man  can  be 
a  genius  in  these  things.     Each  one  must  look  into  himself  and  see 


[if 


he  is  a  lover  of  moral  ideas.  If  there  is  a  reasonable  probability 
that  a  man  is  adapted  to  the  reception  of  moral  feelings,  there  is  an 
equally  reasonable  probability  that  he  will  be  a  fountain  out  of 
which  these  feelings  will  naturally  flow. 

Another  element  is  that  of  having  the  power  to  communicate.  To 
be  a  successful  preacher,  a  man  having  the  King's  message  must  be 
able  to  make  it  known.     And  this  is  largely  a  matter  of  personal 


482  TEE  PRE  AGREE' 8  COMMISSION. 

enthusiasm.  There  is  many  a  man  that  is  adapted  to  communicate 
ideas  in  a  professor's  chair,  who  is  not  adapted  to  communicate 
ideas  in  the  pulpit.  That  is  to  say,  there  is  many  a  man  who  can 
give  out  the  truth  in  dry,  didactic,  systematic  forms,  by  logical  proc- 
esses, who  cannot  give  it  out  with  a  fervor  which  shall  make  it 
efficacious. 

In  order  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  masses  of  mankind,  that 
which  one  needs,  is,  first,  a  solid  basis  of  truth  ;  and  second,  an  in- 
flammatory form  of  truth  which  takes  hold  of  men  through  the 
imagination  ;  through  the  emotions — not  alone  through  the  logical 
reason,  though  that  is  not  to  be  excluded.  If  he  has  that  beside,  so 
much  the  better. 

So,  if  a  man  finds  himself  endowed  with  a  strong  moral  nature ; 
if  he  finds  that  he  has  the  gifts  of  sympathetic  communication,  he 
has  the  foundation  on  which  a  call,  if  there  is  one,  may  stand. 

A  great  many  persons,  it  seems  to  me,  have  made  a  mistake,  if 
that  is  a  foundation  to  a  call  to  the  ministry.  Many  men  have  come 
into  the  ministry  who  have  very  few  moral  ideas,  or  none  at  all. 
They  are  very  barren  in  that  direction.  Many  men  go  into  the  min- 
istry who  have  no  gifts  of  communication.  They  cannot  speak  with- 
out writing ;  and  they  cannot  read  well  what  they  do  write ;  and 
they  do  not  think  much  when  they  are  writing  it.  They  communi- 
cate the  rounds  of  doctrine  as  they  find  them  in  the  books.  They 
may  do  some  good  in  that  way ;  they  may  administer  the  services 
of  devotion  not  altogether  without  profit ;  but  they  are  manifestly 
men  who  do  not  bring  to  their  function  an  original  adaptation.  So 
we  find  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  men  falling  out  of  the  ministry 
every  year  because  they  do  not  succeed — some  who  have  had  bishops' 
hands  laid  on  their  heads,  and  some  who  have  not.  The  laying  on 
of  hands  makes  no  difierence.  A  good  minister  is  good,  if  he  never 
liad  a  bishop's  hand  on  his  head ;  and  a  poor  minister  is  poor,  if  he 
has  had  twenty  bishops'  hands  on  his  head.  If  a  man  has  got  it  in 
him,  he  can  get  it  out,  and  he  does  not  need  to  ask  for  favors ;  but 
if  a  man  has  not  got  it  in  him,  no  favors  can  be  given  to  him  which 
will  enable  him  to  get  it  out.     It  is  all  in  a  nutshell.  ^ 

Many  men  have  felt  very  strongly  inclined  to  go  into  the  min- 
istry,— it  seemed  to  them  such  a  beautiful  business  !  It  was  such  a 
pleasant  life  !  Ah  !  we  are  men  of  like  passions  with  you.  Min- 
isters are  proud  like  other  folks.  They  have  temptations  in  their 
sphere  of  life,  as  well  as  the  business  man  has  in  his.  And  if  a  min- 
ister, lifted  above  men,  did  not  experience  their  weaknesses,  and  have 
a  common  sympathy  with  them,  he  would  not  be  half  a  minister.  It 
is  because  he  is  bone  of  your  bone,  and  flesh  of  your  flesh,  and  pas* 


TEE  PBEACEEE'S  COMMISSION.  483 

sion  of  your  passion,  among  other  things,  that  he  is  fitted  to  be  a 
good  preacher  of  salvation  to  perishing  souls.  But  multitudes  of 
men  think  the  ministry  is  such  a  delightful  thing !  They  think  it 
is  so  splendid  to  be  set  apart  from  the  hurly-burly  of  life,  and  to 
stand  before  an  elect  congregation,  and  to  minister  the  cleanest 
ideas  in  the  cleanest  form,  without  the  wranglings  and  debates  of 
outward  life.  And  then,  it  is  so  respectable  !  And  then,  a  man  who 
is  settled  in  a  good  parish  is  so  released  from  thoughts  which  har- 
ass men  in  other  spheres  !  And  while  the  living  of  many  men  is 
not  certain,  he  gets  his  salary  regularly.  It  is  a  good  thing.  It 
is  every  way  respectable  and  genteel.  And  a  minister  is  at  once 
admitted  into  the  best  society.  And  so  a  great  many  people  think 
they  are  called  to  the  ministry. 

Therefore  it  is  that  we  find  so  many  men  who  are  without  work ; 
so  many  who  are  without  any  call  to  preach,  although  they  thought 
they  had  a  call  to  the  ministry.  Nobody  is  called  to  preach  unless 
somebody  is  called  to  hear  him.  And  if,  when  a  man  has  tried  his 
gifts  patiently  and  faithfully,  giving  himself  time  to  develop  them 
and  make  himself  fully  known,  he  cannot  reach  the  minds  of  men, 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  not  a  good  man,  and  good  for  many 
things,  but  it  does  follow  that  he  is  not  good  for  a  minister. 

I  once  saw  a  German  professor  sitting  by  the  roadside  near  Cin- 
cinnati, breaking  stones.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  in  the  kingdom  to  which  he  belonged.  Being  expelled 
from  his  own  country,  he  came  to  this  land.  He  was  an  honest  man, 
and  would  rather  earn  his  bread  than  beg  it.  He  could  not  find 
work  fitted  to  his  station ;  so  he  tried  to  find  work  in  the  depart- 
ment next  below  his  station.  He  could  not  find  it  there  ;  and  so  he, 
like  a  sensible  man,  took  what  he  could  get.  And  there  he  sat  break- 
ino"  stones.  I  noticed  that  there  was  a  burly  Irishman  not  far  from 
him,  who. was  worth  twice  as  much  as  he — who  could  break  stones 
easier,  and  work  longer  and  better  than  he.  If  I  had  said  anything  to 
that  professor,  I  should  have  said,  "  You  are  not  fitted  for  this  busi- 
ness" ;  but  it  would  not  have  followed  that  he  was  not  fitted  for  a 
hiorher  business.  If  he  had  been  put  in  a  professor's  chair  in  some 
academy  or  college  or  university,  he  would  have  done  a  great  deal 
better,  and  might  have  done  well 

So  I  think  it  is  no  discredit  to  a  man  to  say  plainly  to  him,  "  You 
are  not  fit  for  the  pulpit.  You  have  misjudged  in  the  use  to  which 
you  are  putting  your  talents.  You  may  make  a  good  editor,  but 
not  a  good  preacher.  You  may  make  a  good  professor  in  a  college, 
or  a  good  physician,  or  a  good  merchant,  but  not  a  good  preacher. 
You  have  tried  and  failed :  that  is  the  best  evidence  of  it."  It  is 
because  men  misapprehend  the  nature  of  the  calling ;  or  it  is  because 


484  THE  PBEAGHEB'S  COMMISSION. 

in  forming  their  judgment  in  regard  to  their  adaptation  to  the  work 
of  the  ministry  they  make  a  mistake,  that  there  are  so  many  who 
meet  with  little  or  no  success  in  that  avocation. 

A  call  to  the  ministry,  then,  consists  in  a  personal  fitness  for  the 
ministry  in  moral,  intellectual,  and  sympathetic  endowment.  And 
whoever  is  called  with  these  elements,  let  him  go  into  the  ministry. 
If  he  prefers  to  go  into  a  highly-organized,  well-regulated  church, 
let  him  go  into  what  is  called  the  church.  I  mean  the  Episcopal 
Church.  There  are  two  or  three  churches — the  Roman  Church,  the 
Greek  Church,  and  the  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  this  last,  with  its 
decorous,  beautiful  services,  is  admirable ;  and  every  man  ought  to 
be  grateful  for  it.  And  let  him  who  is  called  to  the  ministry  go 
there  if  he  prefers  that  form  of  service.  But  do  not  let  him  deceive 
himself,  and  suppose  that  it  was  this,  that,  or  the  other  external 
thing  which  put  him  into  the  ministry.  It  was  the  grace  of  God, 
added  to  what  his  father  and  mother  gave  him  in  his  natural  endow- 
ments, that  put  him  there.  These  other  things  are  mere  surplus- 
age. Such  matters  of  order  and  arrangement  are  good  enough  in 
their  way,  but  they  are  incidental  things.  The  thing  itself  is,  that 
he  was  fitted  for  his  work.  That  is  the  main  point.  And  if  you 
pi'efer  to  go  into  the  ministry  without  those  other  incidental  things, 
go  without  them.     They  are  optional. 

Councils  are  called  to  ordain  and  license  men  to  preach.  And 
if  a  man  chooses  to  be  examined  by  the  ministers  of  his  neighbor- 
hood, and  to  be  guided  by  their  judgment  as  to  his  general  adapta- 
tion to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  well  and  good ;  but  have  a  council 
of  ministers  a  right  to  say  to  a  man,  "  You  shall  not  preach"  ?  No, 
not  in  our  country.  Have  they  a  right  to  say  to  a  man,  "  You  shall 
preach,"  or  "  You  may  preach"  ?  No.  When  they  examine  a  man, 
and  find  that  his  qualifications  in  regard  to  character,  personal 
piety,  and  natural  endowment,  are  such  as  to  fit  him  for  the  work, 
and  they  say,  "  We  authorize  you  to  preach  the  Gospel,"  do  they 
give  him  a  larger  liberty  than  he  had  before  ?  No.  He  had  as  much 
right  to  preach  before  as  afterward. 

Well,  is  there  no  use  in  a  council  ?  Yes.  What  is  it  ?  That  is 
just  the  question.  According  to  our  Congregational  view,  it  is 
within  the  province  of  a  council,  after  having  examined  a  man,  to 
say,  "  We  have  looked  into  the  matter  of  this  man's  fitness  to  preach, 
and  we  are  prepared  to  recognize  him  as  a  minister  among  us." 
Otherwise  the  man  would  have  to  go  through  a  probation  and  give 
people  a  chance  to  find  him  out  by  his  actual  work.  Licensing  is 
merely  a  process  by  which  a  man  gets  letters  of  introduction  into 
the  church.  Beyond  that  it  is  nothing  at  all.  The  right  to  preach 
God  gave  him.     No  body  of  men  can  bestow  it  upon  him.     Neither 


TEE  PBEA  CHEWS  COMMISSION.  485 

can  any  body  of  men  take  it  away  from  him.  They  can  say  to  the 
churches,  "  We  do  not  believe  in  him  any  longer,"  but  they  cannot 
Bay  to  him,  "  Shut  up  !" 

It  does  not  follow  because  men  have  certain  gifts  which  fit  them 
for  the  sacred  calling  of  the  ministry,  that  they  should  enter  upon 
that  calling.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  course  that  all  men  who  are 
eminent  in  their  moral  tendencies  should  be  pressed  into  the  service 
as  preachers.  There  is  sometimes  almost  a  compulsory  influence 
brought  to  bear  upon  men.  The  mother  prays  long  and  earnestly 
that  she  may  see  her  son  in  the  pulpit  where  she  desires,  above  all 
other  places,  to  see  him.  But  her  son  is  born  an  artist  child.  And 
all  the  way  up,  there  is  the  clear  shining  of  the  primitive  imagina- 
tion, of  the  artist  nature,  in  the  child.  And  it  is  called  an  eccentrici- 
ty, an  irregularity.  The  father  fights  it ;  and  the  mother  fights  it. 
It  is  like  fighting  light,  which  comes  in  at  the  window,  and  dances 
on  the  carpet.  You  cannot  sweep  it  up,  nor  get  rid  of  it.  There  is 
nothing  to  do  but  to  let  it  shine,  as  it  will  shine.  The  mother  and 
the  father  have  consecrated  the  child  to  the  ministry,  and  the  child 
means  to  become  a  minister,  because  his  parents  wish  him  to.  And 
so  he  goes  to  school,  meaning,  as  he  says,  to  study  for  the  ministry ; 
but  he  thinks  of  pictures.  He  means  to  preach ;  but  he  thinks  of 
pictures.  The  artistic  talent  is  working  in  him  all  the  time.  He 
goes  through  college,  saying  that  he  means  to  be  a  preacher ;  and 
yet  he  is  a  natural  artist,  and  wants  to  make  pictures. 

Now,  it  is  wrong  to  put  such  a  man  into  the  ministry.  God  calls 
him  to  something  else,  and  keeps  telling  him  of  it ;  but  men  say  to 
him,  "  Be  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel."  My  advice  to  him  would  be, 
that  he  should  follow  the  strong  indications  in  his  nature.  If  a  man 
is  drawn  toward  a  profession,  let  him  be  a  professional  man.  If  he 
wants  exceedingly  to  be  a  mechanic,  though  he  be  a  rich  man's  son, 
let  him  be  a  mechanic.  If  God  calls  you  to  the  shop,  you  will  be  a 
thousand  times  happier  than  if  you  ignore  the  strongest  tendency 
of  your  being,  and  go  into  something  for  which  you  have  no 
adaptations.  Thousands  of  men  have  chosen  professions  which  are 
not  fitted  to  them,  and  have  neglected  tendencies  which,  if  they  had 
been  encouraged,  would  have  made  them  happy  all  their  days.  It 
is  of  the  utmost  importance,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  that  a  man 
should  work  in  the  line  of  his  strongest  noble  faculties ;  that  he 
should  not  disregard,  in  his  profession,  that  which  God  hinted  to 
him  in  giving  him  the  charter  of  his  being.  If  a  man  finds  himself 
far  better  adapted  to  mathematical  pursuits  than  to  preaching,  let 
him  choose  them.  If  there  is  any  vocation  of  a  secular  nature  to- 
ward which  a  man  feels  specially  drawn,  let  his  profession  or  career 


486  THE  PEEA  GHEE'S  COMMISSION. 

be  in  that  direction.  But  if  a  man  has  no  special  predilection,  and 
he  has  those  endowments  which  fit  him  for  the  ministry,  there  are 
a  hundred  reasons  why  he  should  choose  that. 

In  determining  whether  a  man  shall  preach,  after  the  matter  of 
personal  fitness  is  settled,  the  question  to  be  considered  is,  What  is 
the  relative  want  in  the  different  departments  of  society  ?  Where 
is  there  the  most  need  of  men  ?  And  if  you  look  over  society  to- 
day, where  is  there  the  most  need  of  men  ?  I  think  there  is  nowhere 
in  society  any  great  necessity  which  stands  in  such  crying  need  of 
able,  strong  men,  as  the  pulpit.  The  law  is  absolutely  overrun, 
pressed  down,  shaken  together,  running  over — so  much  so,  that  hun- 
dreds say  that  the  profession  is  spoiled.  They  say  that  a  man  can- 
not get  a  living  legitimately  in  the  law,  and  must  go  into  some  other 
business,  must  form  outside  connections,  in  order  to  thrive.  Only 
here  and  there  one  succeeds  in  the  law.  But  the  profession  is  eo 
immensely  filled  with  temptations  ;  the  remunerations  are  sometimes 
so  great ;  the  prospects  which  it  holds  out  are  frequently  so  prom- 
ising, that  it  draws  multitudes  to  it. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  medical  profession.  There  are  al- 
most as  many  doctors  as  there  are  patients.  The  city  is  full  of 
them.  They  starve  on  every  corner,  all  through  the  land.  There 
are  more  than  can  find  foot-room.  Where  can  you  find  a  region  in 
all  our  territory  from  which  the  cry  comes  up,  "  Send  us  over  phy- 
sicians :  we  lack  them"  ?  Nowhere.  They  might  say,  without  ir- 
reverence, "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together,  there  are 
we  in  the  midst  of  them,"  all  over  the  land. 

Look  at  the  industrial  pursuits.  How  thronged  is  society  with 
the  intensest  rivalry  in  business !  We  do  not  need  more  factories. 
The  pursuits  of  industry  are  well  served.  There  is  no  need  of  offi- 
cers of  the  army.  There  is  no  need  of  farmers.  There  is  no  need 
of  mechanics.  There  is  no  need  of  physicians  or  lawyers.  There 
is  a  surplus  in  all  these  departments. 

How  is  it  with  the  ministry  ?  Hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
churches  are  empty.  There  are  hundreds  of  fields  where  churches 
ought  to  be  established.  There  are  large  populations  to  whom  the 
Gospel  is  not  carried.  Looking  over  the  community  at  large,  we 
see  that  there  is  a  famine  in  the  church,  and  a  pressure  everywhere 
else.  Nowhere  else  is  there  so  great  a  need  of  able,  devoted,  fear- 
less men  who  are  willing  to  give  their  lives  to  the  work  of  useful- 
ness ;  nowhere  else  is  there  such  a  marked,  growing  and  crying 
need,  as  there  is  in  the  sacred  ministry.  And  this  ought  to  be  a 
subject  of  serious  consideration  with  young  men  who  are  determin- 
ing what  shall  be  their  life-work.     One  should  not  go  into  the  min- 


TEE  FBEACHEB'S  COMMISSION.  487 

istry  merely  because  there  is  an  opening  there,  without  regard  to 
his  titness  for  preaching,  but  if  he  is  fitted  for  it,  and  he  is  situated 
so  that  he  may  go  in  one  direction  or  another,  and  he  has  a  moral 
impulse,  and  he  foels  that  he  will  have  a  reasonable  chance  of  suc- 
cess in  the  ministry,  or  through  it,  it  seems  to  me  that  he  should  go 
in  that  direction.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  many  young 
men  in  this  city  that  are  achieving  success  in  worldly  callings  who 
ouo-ht  to  withdraw  themselves  from  those  callings,  and  devote  their 
energies  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  And  whatever  pleasure  there 
may  be  in  worldly  pursuits,  there  is  no  pleasure  in  it  to  be  com- 
pared with  that  which  is  derived  from  preaching  the  Gospel  to  men, 
sinply  and  fearlessly,  for  the  love  of  it. 

Men  seem  to  think  that  there  are  many  cares  and  responsibilities 
in  the  Christian  ministry.  It  has  many  cares  and  responsibilities  ; 
but  I  do  aot  think  it  has  so  many  as  the  other  average  professions. 
It  uses  mainly  the  noblest  faculties  of  the  soul.  It  deals  chiefly 
with  the  clearest  truths.  And  although  it  may  not  be  so  fruitful  in 
money  as  many  other  callings,  there  is  no  calling  whose  remunera- 
tions are  greater.  The  best  men  that  I  have  known  were  not  poor 
ministers,  but  ministers  that  were  poor.  But  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  Christ's  disciples — as  he  said  they  who  followed  him  should — in- 
heriting houses,  lands,  all  manner  of  possessions,  the  whole  world. 
They  who  give  their  very  soul-life  for  the  salvation  of  their  fellow- 
men,  are  caught  up  into  the  sympathy  of  men.  They  are,  as  it 
were,  adopted. 

**  I  have  been  young,  and  now  am  old,  yet  have  I  not  seen  the  righteous 
forsaken,  nor  hiaseed  begging  bread." 

Though  the  average  salaries  of  the  ministers  of  the  United 
States  are  not  over  four  hundi-ed  dollars,  taking  the  country  thi'ough 
I  point  to  the  profession  of  the  ministry  as  a  profession  that  bring 
up  their  families,  on  the  whole,  with  more  culture  than  any  other. 
I  point  to  the  profession  of  the  ministry,  and  say  that  they  contrib- 
ute more  able  men  to  the  learned  professions  than  any  other  pro- 
fession, and  that,  on  the  whole,  they  have  a  better  thrift  They  live 
as  well,  they  are  as  prosperous,  and  I  think  more  so,  than  any  other 
profession.     I  believe  it  is  partly  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise, 

*'  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  [what  ye  shall  eat,  and  what  ye  shall  drink,  and  wherewithal  ye 
shall  be  clothed]  shall  be  added  unto  you." 

They  trust  that  promise,  and  they  realize  it. 

Let  no  man,  then,  be  deterred  from  preaching  the  Gospel  because 
the  mmistry  is  an  impoverished  profession ;  for  though  it  cannot 
give  you  great  wealth,  you  may  hope  to  get  from  it  that  which 
great  wealth  cannot  give — happiness. 


488  THE  PBEACHEE'S  COMMISSION. 

But,  while  I  advocate  strenuously  the  entrance  into  the  Christian 
ministry  of  educated  men  who  intend  to  make  that  the  business  of 
their  life,  I  think  that  they  should  not  constitute  the  whole  of  the 
ministerial  profession.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to  rae  that  there 
are  multitudes  of  men  in  every  community,  who  are  called,  not 
waiting  for  an  education,  to  be  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  Not  only 
should  there  be  men  who  are  taken  into  the  ministry  by  an  abbrevi- 
ated course,  as  the  Methodist  church  very  wisely  takes  men  into  the 
ministry,  but  there  ought  to  be  more  lay  preaching.  Men  ought  to 
preach  the  Gospel  who  do  not  make  preaching  their  professions. 
The  judge,  the  lawyer,  the  artist,  the  school-teacher,  the  physician, 
the  mechanic,  the  engineer,  the  day-laborer,  whoever  has  been  called 
to  seek  his  livelihood,  and  to  develop  his  talents  in  some  secular 
channel,  has  a  sphere  for  teaching  and  for  preaching  which  he  ought 
not  to  ignore  nor  to  neglect. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  the  population  of 
these  whole  United  States  to  be  supplied  with  regulation  churches 
and  regulation  ministers.  We  shall  have  immense  destitutions,  and 
I  know  not  for  how  long  a  time.  It  is  preposterous  to  think  of  wait- 
ing until  we  have  what  is  called  a  thorough  educated  ministry.  It 
therefore  becomes  necessary  for  men  to  engage,  in  the  intervals  of 
their  regular  occupations,  in  the  work  of  preaching  the  Gospel,  who 
are  not  highly  educated  nor  ordained.  Every  man  in  any  business 
who  loves  God  and  men,  and  has  opportunities  and  gifts,  should 
preach — and  not  occasionally,  either,  but  often.  There  is  no  reason 
why  men  should  not  feel  it  to  be  a  part  of  the  duty  of  every  week 
to  make  known  somewhere  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  If  you 
have  the  power  to  do  it,  who  has  exonerated  you  from  the  obliga- 
tion of  doing  it  ?  Are  we  not  to  speak  of  that  love  which  has  made 
life  radiant  to  us  ?  Are  we  to  hold  commerce  with  hope  immortal, 
and  keep  that  hope  a  secret  from  others  ?  Are  we  to  be  inspired 
from  day  to  day  by  the  mightiest  truths  of  creation,  and  shall  there 
be  no  echo  of  them  sounded  out  to  others  ?  It  is  your  business,  be- 
ing a  Christian,  to  let  your  light  so  shine  that  men,  seeing  your 
good  works,  shall  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

There  are  spheres  which  no  minister  can  reach.  What  can  I  do, 
going  into  Wall  Street,  and  into  the  banks,  and  brokers'  offices,  to 
preach  the  Gospel — that  is,  to  make  application  of  it  to  the  special 
trials  and  temptations  of  men  there  ?  They  have  their  peculiar 
weaknesses  and  dangers,  and  if  I  go  preach  to  them  the  theology 
and  ethics  of  the  pulpit,  there  is  in  my  preaching  a  want  of  adapta- 
tion to  their  core.  I  lack  a  knowledge  of  their  circumstances,  and 
therefore  cannot  sympathize  with  them  in  those  cirftumstances.  And 


TEE  FBEACHEWS  COMMISSION,  489 

they  say  to  me,  "  We  respect  your  desire  and  effort  to  do  us  good, 
Mr.  Beecher,  but  you  never  stood  whei'e  we  do,  and  therefore  you 
cannot  know  what  we  have  to  contend  with." 

When  a  man  like  Daniel  Drew  goes  into  a  broker's  shop,  and 
preaches,  he  can  do  what  I  could  not  do.  Here  I  can  do  what  he 
could  not  ;  but  among  his  own  kind,  among  sinners  with  whom  he 
is  in  sympathy,  he  has  a  message  that  I  could  not  carry.  And  so  in 
every  profession  or  business  there  are  men  who  have,  or  ought  to 
have,  a  message  for  those  in  that  profession  or  business,  which  it 
would  be  out  of  my  power  to  deliver.  Every  person  who  has 
a  saving  hope  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  is  a  child  of  light 
and  love,  has  a  message  and  nourishment  for  those  around  about  him, 
and  can  do  for  them  what  I  cannot.  As  the  father  and  the  mother 
in  the  family  can  do  for  the  children  what  no  other  person  can,  so  in 
every  profession  and  in  every  business  there  are  men  who  can  do  for 
their  fellows  what  can  be  done  by  nobody  else,  and  can  save  some 
who  otherwise  must  be  undone.  Nobody  else  can  preach  such 
things  as  he  can.  His  sphere  may  be  limited,  and  the  occasions  may 
only  come  at  intervals  ;  nevertheless,  there  is  a  call  of  God  to  him 
to  preach. 

The  lawyer,  among  squabbling  contestants,  has  a  sphere  in  which 
he  may  bring  home  lessons  of  peace  and  love  which  no  other  man 
has.  The  doctor,  in  the  sick  room,  taking  the  hands  of  emasculated 
young  men  who  are  destroying  their  life  by  vice — what  counsel, 
what  warning,  what  saving  truth,  might  he  not  pour  into  their  needy 
ears  1  Here  is  society  opening  opportunities  for  relieving  different 
and  constantly  recurring  wants ;  and  one  man  can  supply  one  ele- 
ment of  the  Gospel  here,  another  man  can  supply  another  element 
there,  and  every  man  has  some  level  where  he  can  work  as  no  one 
else  can.  And  do  you  who  have  faith  in  Christ,  and  make  a  pro- 
fession of  religion,  bear  a  hope  of  salvation  for  yourselves,  and  never 
speak  of  it  to  men  who  are  dying  around  you  for  the  lack  of  it  ? 

I  think  there  is  nothing  more  striking  than  the  unused  strength, 
the  latent  and  undeveloped  power,  in  the  church  to-day.  There  are 
many  churches  whose  strength  does  not  lie  in  the  pulpit.  There  are 
many  churches  where  the  pews  surpass,  in  moral  power  and 
efficiency,  the  pulpit.  There  are  many  members  of  some  churches 
who  are  more  competent  to  instruct  the  minister  than  the  minister 
is  to  instruct  them.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  the  church  has  a  right 
to  edify  itself  by  the  gifts  of  all  its  members. 

In  meetings,  those  accustomed  to  speak,  emotive  and  imaginative 
persons,  persons  that  are  excitable,  do  the  talking  ;  whereas,  the 
man  of  thought,  the  man  of  patient  investigation,  the  man  who  has 


490  TEE  PBEACEEB  S  COMMISSION 

reaped  the  field  of  life,  and  is  full  of  valuable  experience,  sits  silent, 
a  year,  five  years,  ten  years.  He  never  opens  his  mouth.  He  is  a 
granary  full  of  corn,  not  a  single  kernel  of  which  is  dropped  into  the 
ground.  It  comes  in  silent,  it  stays  silent,  and  goes  out  silent,  and 
does  not  propagate  itself.  And  there  is  many  a  man  of  ample  re- 
sources who  keeps  those  resources  to  himself.     Is  that  right  ? 

Do  you  say,  "  I  have  no  call "  ?  Why  have  you  not  a  call  ? 
You  are  like  one  who  puts  his  fingers  in  his  ears,  and  then  says,  "  I 
do  not  hear  anything.  Is  it  not  a  call  that  you  have  the  power  to 
speak  ?  Is  it  not  a  call  that  there  is  the  need  of  speaking  ?  Is  it 
not  a  call  that  you  are  in  the  church  to  be  edified  by  all  its  mem- 
bers, and  that  the  church  has  a  right  to  your  sympathy  and  power  ? 

It  does  not  follow  that  you  are  to  attempt  to  make  long  speeches ; 
but  in  some  way  there  is  to  be  testimony  from  you  in  the  church. 
The  lay  members  are  not  faithful  to  their  duty  in  this  respect.  They 
do  not  preach,  in  the  church,  out  of  the  church,  in  Bible-class  and 
Sunday-schools,  in  jails  and  hospitals,  in  the  car,  in  the  field,  where 
there  is  no  social  adaptation,  and  where  is  no  Sabbath  bell,  or 
preacher,  as  they  ought  to  do.  They  are  competent  to  stand  up  and 
utter  the  right  word  in  the  right  place  ;  and  yet  they  say  nothing. 
How  many  men  there  are  who  are  well-informed,  influential,  power- 
ful, and  yet  do  nothing,  because  they  are  not  regulation  ministers  ! 

The  call  to  preach  lies  in  the  ability,  and  in  the  heart  that  sym- 
pathizes with  God  and  man ;  and  we  shall  never  have  full-power 
preaching  so  long  as  we  depend  upon  professional  ministers.  For 
they  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  whole  church  that  the  superior 
officers  in  the  army  do  to  the  whole  army.  And  as  the  rank  and  file 
must  fight,  so  the  great  body  of  the  church  must  witness  and  tes- 
tify. And  when  there  is  a  living  power  in  the  whole  church,  we 
shall  find,  not  only  that  the  Gospel  will  have  free  course  to  run  and 
be  glorified,  but  there  will  be  such  an  education  in  it  that  those  who 
preach  will  become  better  and  better  Christians,  and  nobler  and  no- 
bler testimonials  of  the  very  doctrines  which  they  preach. 

It  only  remains  that  I  should  say  a  word  to  parents,  and  those 
who  are  rearing  the  young.  It  is  high  time  that  we  should  go  back 
again  to  the  example  of  the  mother  of  Samuel,  that  our  children  may 
be  brought  up  from  the  cradle  with  a  higher  ideal  of  moral  life. 

If  you  ask  me  how  I  came  to  be  a  preacher,  I  reply,  that  I 
never  knew  anything  else.  I  found  it  all  cut  out  for  me  when  I 
grew  up.  The  mother  who  bore  me  expected  that  I  would  be  a 
preacher.  I  learned,  with  inexpressible  emotion,  late  in  life,  that 
she  had  ordained  me,  with  much  prayer  and  many  tears,  to  be  a  for- 
eign missionary.     That  part  of  her  desire  never  was  fulfilled ;  but 


THE  FEE  A  GHEE'S  COMMISSION.  491 

that  I  was  to  be  a  minister,  that  all  her  children  were  to  be  minis- 
ters— of  that  she  had  no  more  doubt  than  she  had  of  her  own  faith 
in  Christ.  I  found,  too,  that  my  father  was  expecting  it ;  and  I  had 
no  more  doubt  of  it  than  he  had — after  my  boyhood  was  passed,  I 
mean.  T  went  through  all  the  dreams  of  boys  who  intend,  first  or 
last,  to  be  stage-drivers,  and  midshipmen,  and  captains  and  generals, 
and  what  not ;  but  as  soon  as  1  began  to  touch  real  manhood,  the 
very  atmosphere  was  such  that  I  felt  called  to  preach.  There  were 
seven  of  my  father's  sons  in  all,  and  every  one  of  them  preached. 
One  or  two  of  them  tried  to  escape,  but  they  gave  up  the  trial  after 
a  little  while.  My  youngest  brother  chose  the  sea  after  going 
through  college ;  but  he  relinquished  it,  and  went  to  preaching.  He 
went  on  ship-board  and  made  himself  ready  to  take  command ;  but 
father's  prayers  were  too  much  for  him  and  pulled  him  to  the  shore. 
And  he  is  preaching  now.  And  that  influence  which  prevailed  in  my 
father's  family,  was  a  legitimate  household  influence. 

Take  not  the  poorest  and  weakest  ones  of  your  flock,  and  say, 
"  Being  good  for  nothing  else,  we  will  make  ministers  of  these." 
Take  those  of  your  children  who  are  strong  and  deep — the  strong- 
built  and  the  deep-built ;  take  those  who  are  able  to  carry  their 
keels  through  deep  waters,  and  make  ministers  of  them.  The  church 
needs  them.  The  times  need  them.  Begin  with  them  at  the  morn- 
ing of  their  life  :  not  to  weary  them  ;  not  to  disgust  them  with  im- 
portunity, but  to  teach  them  to  take  sight  of  all  questions  of  life 
along  the  line  of  moral  truth,  which  is  the  highest  wisdom.  Bring 
up  your  children  to  preach,  that  they  may  raise  aloft  the  banner  of 
Christ  and  carry  it,  as  his  faithful  champions,  through  life.  May 
God  raise  up  some  from  out  of  this  congregation,  who  shall  be  ear* 
nest  and  efficient  preachers  of  the  GospeL 


492  TEJE  PBEACEBW8  COMMISSION, 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  thank  thee,  our  Father,  that  we  are  permitted  to  draw  near  to  thee. 
Though  thou  art  invisible,  yet  we  feel  thy  presence.  Our  hearts  respond 
when  thou,  by  thy  Spirit,  dost  move  upon  us.  Though  the  eye  cannot  dis- 
cern thee,  though  we  hear  no  voice,  though  we  reach  forth  the  hand  in  the 
darkness,  and  there  is  none  that  we  can  find,  yet  we  know  that  thou  art 
present.  There  is  the  witness  of  thy  Spirit  with  ours.  There  is  that  in  us 
which  rises  up  unbidden  of  ourselves.  There  is  communion  by  which  we 
enter  into  the  secrets  of  the  life  to  come,  and  are  refreshed  more  than  by 
our  own  will,  or  by  our  own  thought,  or  by  anything  that  is  in  us.  We 
rejoice  to  believe  that  thou  art  communicable;  that  thou  dost  with  infinite 
condescension  bow  down  thyself  to  our  wont;  that  thou  dost  follow  us  with 
thy  nature  and  surround  us  with  thy  presence;  that  we  are  buoyed  up,  and 
borne  upon  thy  being  as  ships  are  carried  upon  the  great  deep. 

So,  in  thy  mightiness,  in  the  grandeur  of  thy  being,  in  thine  infinite  suf- 
ficiency, we  find  our  weakness  and  our  ignobleness  remedied,  and  all  our 
wants  supplied.  And  we  rejoice  that  thou  art  our  Father.  We  do  not  hum- 
ble ourselves  when  we  are  humble  before  thee.  We  bow  down  before  thee 
without  disgrace.  We  confess  our  sius  to  thee.  We  soar  yet,  notwithstand- 
ing the  poignant  shame  which  we  should  have  in  the  face  of  men.  Better 
and  purer  thou  art  than  all  others.  Nowhere  except  in  thy  presence  is 
there  such  hatefulness  of  sin.  Nowhere  else  is  there  such  discord  of  wrong 
things  as  in  thine  ear.  And  yet,  nowhere  else  is  there  such  lenience,  such 
forbearance,  such  consideration,  such  delicacy.  Nowhere  else  is  there  such 
all-suffering  love. 

How  wonderful  is  that  forgiveness  which  thou  dost  mete  out,  thou  that 
f orgettest  nothing ;  thou  that  dwellest  forever  in  the  presence  of  all  knowl- 
edge! And  yet  thou  dost  forget  our  iniquities,  so  that  they  are  sunk  as  the 
stones  in  the  sea ;  so  that  they  are  hidden  from  memory.  They  are  as  if 
they  never  were,  to  thee.  How  wonderf  al  is  thy  mercy  I  How  great  is  thy 
magnanimity  1  How  far  beyond  our  reach  or  meditation  is  that  grandeur 
of  thy  nature  by  which  thou  art  out  of  thine  excellence  planting  in  us  excel- 
lences that  we  need!  And  yet,  why  dost  thou  wait  so  patiently?  Only  be- 
cause thou  art  God.  How  art  thou  the  Guide  of  our  life!  Thou  dost  direct 
our  conduct.  Thou  art  greater  than  we  in  the  direction  of  goodness.  Thou 
art  more  tender  than  the  tenderest.  Thou  art  more  gentle  than  the  gen- 
tlest. Wonderful  as  is  thy  power,  vast  as  is  the  sweep  of  thy  being  and  the 
realm  in  which  thou  art  moving,  nowhere  among  men  is  there  so  much  of 
graciousness  and  long-suffering  and  patience  as  with  thee.  We,  because  we 
are  common  sinners,  we  because  we  are  ourselves  weak,  are  in  sympathy 
with  the  weak;  but  why  dost  thou,  who  art  lifted  up  in  the  grandeur  of 
thine  own  estate,  have  compassion  upon  the  poor  and  the  needy?  This  it  is 
to  have  divine  nature. 

And  now  we  pray  that  we  may  more  and  more  think  of  thee  as  divine  in 
goodness  and  mercy  and  graciousness.  We  thank  thee  that  these  have  not 
been  expended  upon  us  vainly,  but  that  goodness  and  mercy  and  gracious- 
ness are  always  at  work,  and  have  built  us  up  into  righteousness.  Thou  art 
not  content  that  we  shall  stand  still  and  then  be  shined  upon  with  happi- 
ness; thou  art  ministering  to  us,  by  thy  love  and  by  thy  benevolence,  many 
chastisements.  Pains  run  to  and  fro  and  every  whither,  throughout  thy 
domain.  But  mercy  is  the  attribute  of  God.  And  everywhere  thou  art 
administering  throughout  the  heaven  and  throughout  the  earth,  for  the 
upbuilding,  for  the  edifying,  for  the  perfection,  of  those  who  are  thine. 
We  are  glad  that  so  many  have  reached  the  estate  of  the  blessed.    We 


TRE  PEEACnEB'S  COMMISSION,  493 

I 

are  glad  that  of  thosa  who  have  gone  home  from  among  us  there  are  so 
many  who  hare  sat  in  these  seats  with  us ;  so  many  who  have  sung  together 
these  hymns;  so  many  who  have  prayed  and  rejoiced  together  here;  so 
many  who  have  triumphed  over  death,  and  are  at  rest  with  the  people  of 
God  in  heaven.  And  we  thank  thee  that  there  are  so  many  more  whose 
faces  already  shine  with  the  coming  light,  and  that  so  many  of  us  are  draw- 
ing near  to  the  line  and  bound  of  departure,  and  looking  over,  yea,  and 
inhaling  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  other  side  by  foretaste. 

And  we  pray  that  we  may  be  prepared  to  live,  and  be  prepared  to  die. 
Grant  that  there  may  be  nothing  in  this  life  which  shall  be  so  sweet  to  U8 
that  we  shall  not  rather  be  with  Christ,  which  is  better  than  life.  And  may 
we  not  be  so  weary  of  life  here  that  we  shall  desire  to  depart.  May  we  await 
thy  righteous  will. 

And  now,  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  severally  upon  all  that  are  gathered 
together  in  thy  presence  to-night.  Even  with  the  richest  blessings  of  the 
Son  of  God,  endow  them.  The  indwelling  of  thy  Spirit  grant  unto  them. 
The  fruition  of  thy  people  may  they  have  in  their  heart. 

We  pray  that  thy  word  may  be  expounded  for  the  edification  of  those 
who  listen.  May  we  rejoice  together  in  sacred  hymns.  May  we  rejoice  in 
common  communion  with  thee  in  hope  and  faith  and  expectation. 

And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  thy  kingdom  may  come,  and  thy  will  be 
done  in  all  our  land.  May  churches  be  built  in  waste  places.  May  there  be 
men  who  shall  spend  their  lives  in  making  known  the  unsearchable  riches 
of  Jesus  Christ.  We  pray  that  thy  work  may  be  carried  forward  in  the 
inlands  of  the  sea,  and  in  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  i  and  that  there  may 
be  those  everywhere,  throughout  the  bounds  of  the  earth,  who  shall  make 
known  the  cause  of  Christ.  And  may  they  be  strengthened.  May  they  see 
that  their  labor  is  not  in  vain. 

Advance  thy  banner.  Come,  thou  that  bearest  victory,  and  consummate 
thy  work,  and  let  the  whole  earth  see  thy  salvation.  And  to  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Ameiu 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the 
word  of  exhortation.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  it  may  inspire  thoughtful- 
ness.  May  there  be  many  who  shall  inquire  whether  they  have  done  their 
whole  duty  to  their  God  and  their  fellowmen.  May  none  wrap  their  tal- 
ents in  a  napkin.  May  all  consider  what  use  they  shall  put  their  powers  to. 
We  pray  that  thou  wilt  inspire  men  with  wholesome  thought  and  a  new 
spirit.  May  every  family  be  a  church ;  and  may  every  parent  be  a  priest ; 
and  in  love  may  households  be  brought  up ;  and  may  many  come  forth  who 
shall  carry  Christian  effort  and  example  into  all  professions  and  pursuits  of 
life ;  and  may  there  be  many  who  shall  go  forth  as  ministers  of  the  word, 
and  who  shall  be  valiant  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  revive  thy  churches  everywhere.  And  in  this 
church,  especially;  in  the  heart  of  its  pastor  and  in  the  hearts  of  its  mem- 
bers; in  all  our  schools  and  colleges ;  and  among  the  poor  and  necessitous 
as  well  as  among  the  prosperous,  grant  that  cleansing,  inspiring  Spirit  by 
which  we  shall  live  a  life  unto  God.  Hear  us  in  these  petitions,  and  answer 
us,  through  Christ  the  Beloved.    Amen. 


XXVI. 

The  Privilege  of  Working. 


Grant  unto  us,  our  Father,  the  open  vision  of  thy  face,  that  it  may  be 
day  with  us,  and  that  we  may  be  children  of  light  this  day.  In  thy  smile, 
all  our  sorrows  go  and  all  our  joys  come.  Be  pleased,  then,  out  of  thine  in- 
finite fullness  to  supply  our  lack.  Out  of  our  life,  Uft  up  in  us  life  in  bettef 
things.  May  we  dwell  in  the  hours  of  this  day  as  upon  the  threshold  or 
heaven.  May  the  service  of  song,  and  of  prayer,  and  may  all  instruction  in 
holy  things,  abound  this  day  in  the  blessing  of  God,  to  the  honor  of  thy 
great  name.    We  ask  it  in  Christ's  name.    Amen. 

26. 


THE  PRIVILEGE  OE  VORKING. 


"  Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace  given, 
that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 
Eph.  III.  8. 


The  union  of  pride  and  humility  was  never  so  remarkable  as  in 
the  case  of  Paul.  The  most  profound  self-abasement,  and  the  most 
intense  self-confidence,  were  united  in  him.  In  one  point  of  view  he 
declares  that  he  was  second  to  none  of  the  apostles  in  labors.  He  de- 
clares that  he  abounded  in  labors  more  than  all  of  them — as  he  did. 
And  yet,  in  other  points  of  view  he  speaks  of  himself  as  less  than  the 
least  of  them,  as  in  the  text : 

"  Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints  [not  merely  less  than 
his  fellows,  the  apostles,  but  less  than  the  saints],  is  this  grace  [this  glorious 
permis,-ion]  given,  that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearch- 
able riches  of  Christ." 

You  will  find  the  same  declaration  contained  in  the  15th  chapter 
of  1st  Corinthians  : 

"  Last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  one  born  out  of  due  time.  Fori 
am  the  least  of  the  apostles,  that  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle,  because 
I  persecuted  the  Church  of  God." 

There  is  humility  for  you.     But  listen  again  : 

"  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am  :  and  his  grace  which  was  be- 
stowed upon  me  was  not  in  vain." 

He  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  make  believe  in  order  to  be 
humble.     He  knew  that  fact  was  fact. 

♦'  I  labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all." 
But  the  moment  he  took  another  view  of  it,  he  added, 
*  Yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  which  was  with  me." 
The  predominent  feeling  of  Paul  in  respect  to  his  ministry  was, 
that  permission  to  labor    for  God  and  man   was   an    unspeakable 
privilege.     He  accepted  his  toil,  his  suftering,  the  obloquy  which 
was  brought  upon  him,  bis  exile,  his  weariness,  his  sickness,  and  all 
the   other   concomitants   of  his  extraordinary    career  ;    and   then, 
in  vipw  of  them  all,  he  declared  that  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  men 
who  did  not  know  the  truth,  was  an  unspeakable  privilege.     He  re- 

SuNDAY  Morning,  Oct.  30. 1870.  Lesson  :  1  Pet.  I.  Hymns  (Plymouth  Ck>lIeo- 
tiOQ)  :  Kos.  43,  iUi,  tiOd. 


498  TEE  PBIVILEGE  OF  WORKING. 

joiced  as  if  it  were  a  favor,  and  a  remarkable  favor,  that  God  had 
conferred  upon  him. 

Through  many  years  he  was  the  most  prodigious  of  workers.  It 
may  be  said  that  Christianity  has  delivered  itself  to  us  on  account 
of  Paul.  It  was  his  conception  of  Christianity,  it  was  his  applica- 
tion of  it  to  the  various  phases  of  life,  that  determined  the  shape 
which  Christianity  has  assumed  in  the  world.  Yet,  through  all  he 
preserved  the  feeling  that  he  was  one  who  was  favored,  in  that  he 
was  permitted  to  work  for  Christ.  He  had  the  feeling,  not  that  he 
had  attained  a  great  thing,  but  that  a  great  thing  had  been  done  to 
him.  He  had  a  profound  sense  of  his  obligation  for  the  redemption 
of  his  soul  by  Jesus — such  a  sense  as  made  him  feel  that  he  never 
could  repay  the  debt,  and  that  all  his  time,  and  his  every  thought, 
and  every  power,  and  every  effort,  would  only  be  a  minimum  con- 
tribution, a  mere  fractional  payment,  of  his  indebtedness  to  Christ. 
No  one  (not  even  Dante)  ever  had  such  a  vivid  sense  of  what  it  is  to 
be  without  God  in  the  world,  and  to  be  a  child  of  wrath  and  dark- 
ness, as  the  apostle  Paul  had.  If  you  go  through  his  writings,  and  col- 
lect his  intimations  and  affirmations  on  the  subject,  you  will  be  struck 
with  the  magnitude  and  dreadfulness  of  his  conception  of  the  state 
of  being  lost.  He  had,  all  through  his  life,  the  feeling  that  he  had 
been  as  one  suspended  over  a  mighty  abyss,  and  that  in  an  unex- 
pected hour  he  had  been  grasped  and  brought  back  to  safety  again. 
And  he  never  forgot  the  shock.  He  never  got  rid  of  the  impression 
which  was  produced  upon  his  mind.  No  one  ever  had  a  more  inti- 
mate and  personal  feeling,  either,  of  the  meaning  of  this  rescue  by 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  of  which  he  was  the  subject.  With  all  that  he 
was  in  the  fullness  of  his  power,  with  all  his  intuitions,  with  the  suc- 
cess which  attended  him  everywhere,  with  that  self-consciousness 
which  rather  magnified  than  minified  his  real  gifts,  the.  apostle 
always  felt  that  he  owed  everything  he  was  to  the  grace  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

I  have  in  my  mind  a  man  of  a  great  nature,  with  great  faults 
and  great  excellences,  to  whom  God  has  given  a  companion  of  rare 
excellence  ;  and  I  have  heard  him  say,  many  times,  with  tears  roll- 
ing down  his  dieeks,  "  If  I  have  been  saved  from  wickedness,  and  I 
have  turned  out  anything  good,  I  owe  it  to  that  woman."  I  have 
heard  this  testimony  borne,  not  once  nor  twice,  but  many  times.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  affecting  testimonies  that  one  can  have,  that  the 
influence  of  another  person  has  been  such  as  to  save  him  from  the 
evil  that  is  in  him,  and  in  the  world,  and  lift  him  up  on  a  higher 
plane,  and  give  him  an  exalted  sphere  and  life,  and  that  he  owes  a 
debt  of  gratitude  to  that  other  for  that  influence. 


THE  PBIVILEQE  OF  WOBKING.  499 

Now,  Paul,  feeling  so  in  regard  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  says, 
*'  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am."    "Because  we  thus  judge,  that 
If  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead  :  and  that  he  died  for  all,  that  they 
which   live  should    not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  him 
which  died  for  them. 

The  figures  which  he  employs  show  this.  He  speaks  of  himself 
as  of  one  that  was  lost,  and  recovered  again ;  as  of  a  person  lost  in 
a  great  wilderness,  and  sought  out,  and  found,  and  brought  back, 
and  saved  from  starvation,  or  from  other  destruction.  He  speaks 
continually  of  darkness  as  having  been  his  former  state,  and  of  him- 
self as  having  been  restored  to  light  by  the  power  of  Christ.  All 
his  foregoing  life  was  as  the  life  of  a  man  in  a  dungeon,  except  that 
he  did  not  know  it ;  and  all  his  after  conscious  life  was  as  the  life  of 
a  man  who  was  living  and  walking  under  the  blessed  sun.  And  all 
that  he  owed  to  Christ — to  the  influence  which  Christ  had  exerted 
upon  him.  At  other  times  he  speaks  of  himself  as  of  one  who  had 
been  taken  captive  by  cruel  enemies,  but  had  been  rescued.  As  a 
person  is  rescued  by  being  bought  out  of  slavery,  so  he  sometimes 
represents  himself  as  having  been  bought  by  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ.  At  other  times  he  represents  himself  as  a  warrior  triumph- 
ing over  his  enemies.  As  one  sets  free  those  who  are  endungeoned, 
by  breaking  down  the  door,  and  opening  the  recesses  of  cruelty, 
and  bringing  out  the  victims,  so  Paul  speaks  of  himself  as  having 
been  found  and  rescued  by  the  military  power,  as  it  were,  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Thus  dilFerent  figures  are  employed  by  Paul  interchangeably,  to 
set  forth  the  truth  that  he  had  been  horribly  ensnared  and  horribly 
bruised  in  his  bitter  captivity  of  sin,  and  that  he  had  been  rescued  by 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  brought  out  into  life  and  liberty  and  glad- 
ness, into  an  ampler  manhood,  and  into  a  hope  far  transcending  the 
present,  and  that  he  owed  it  to  Christ.  It  was  not  the  drift  of  his 
faculties,  nor  the  drift  of  the  institutions  under  which  he  lived.  It 
was  not  the  work  of  his  organization  nor  of  his  will.  It  was  the 
continuous  divine  influence.  He  was  conscious  that  it  Avrought  this 
work  in  his  soul ;  and  he  never  forgot  it.  It  never  wore  out  with 
him. 

His  life  therefore  seemed  to  him  a  gift.  All  that  he  had,  and  all 
that  he  was,  and  all  that  he  could  think,  and  all  that  he  could  do, 
and  whatever  enthusiasm  he  had,  and  whatever  power  he  had  of  in- 
spiring other  people  with  enthusiasm — these  were,  all  of  them,  in 
his  language,  bought  with  a  price — even  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Therefore,  wherever  Paul  labored,  and  however  much  he  labored, 
he  never  seemed  to  himself  overworked.      Never  had  he  exerted 


500  THE  FBIYILEGE  OF  WOBKINQ. 

himself  beyond  what  he  thought  he  ought  to.  Never  did  he  feel 
that  he  had  performed  an  overplus  of  work.  There  is  a  generosity 
and  humility  in  love  which  can  work  from  a  profound  sense  of  gen- 
erosity. There  is  a  love  that  scorns  measuring.  And  the  apostle 
never  felt,  "  I  have  worked  fully  up  to  my  share  of  that  which  is  to 
be  done  on  earth."  He  felt,  rather,  "  As  long  as  I  have  a  sentient 
emotion,  as  long  as  I  have  a  pulse-beat,  all  that  there  is  of  me  is  not 
enough  to  pay  the  debt  that  I  owe  to  him  that  loved  me,  and  gave 
himself  for  me,"  He  felt  that  he  could  never  pay  that  debt.  There 
are  some  debts,  you  know,  that  cannot  be  paid.  Heart-debts  you 
cannot  pay. 

Oh,  how  beautiful  a  thing  is  such  sensitive  and  honorable  grati- 
tude !  There  are  men  who  cannot  hear  the  name  of  Arnold  of 
Rugby  spoken  without  tears,  to  this  day,  though  he  has  been  dead 
for  a  score  of  years.  Thomas  Hughes,  who  has  just  gone  home,  is 
one  of  them.  I  do  not  believe  he  could  speak  of  him  five  minutes 
without  tears,  and  without  saying,  "  From  the  foundation  to  the 
roof-tree,  everything  that  I  am,  I  owe  to  that  man," 

There  are  persons  who  know  that  if  they  had  not  been  taken  by 
Jesus  at  just  such  a  time,  into  fi-iendliness  and  love,  and  been  snared 
in  the  golden-meshed  web  of  divine  sympathy,  and  been  rescued, 
they  would  have  been  utterly  destroyed.  And  in  regard  to  every- 
thing that  comes  to  be  bright  and  beautiful  in  their  experience,  to 
the  end  of  their  life,  they  will  never  cease  to  feel,  "  I  owe  it  all  to 
him." 

There  are  children  who  cannot  hear  their  mother's  name  men- 
tioned without  having  a  tide,  a  gulf-stream,  as  it  were,  setting  out 
of  their  heart.  For  they  know  that  the  life  which  they  are  living 
here,  and  which  they  hope  to  live  hereafter,  was  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  her  influence  and  fidelity  and  love,  that  if  it  had  not 
been  for  her  faithfulness,  their  souls  would  not  have  lived. 

These  are  very  blessed  testimonies ;  they  are  comely,  seemly, 
beautiful,  rational,  admirable ;  but  above  them  all  stands  One  who 
is  more  to  us  than  father  or  mother,  or  brother  or  sister,  or  husband 
or  wife,  or  dearest  and  most  self-sacrificing  friend — Jesus  Christ, 
who  sacrificed  his  life  for  us,  and  now  lives  his  heavenly  life  for  us 
from  day  to  day,  and  from  hour  to  hour.  And  Paul  felt,  as  we 
ought  to  feel  more  than  we  do, 

"  The  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Sod  of 
God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me." 

He  really  felt  so  ;  and  he  never  could  do  enough  for  Christ.  You 
never  can  do  enough  for  one  whom  you  thoroughly  love.  What 
mother  could  ever  do  enough  for  her  child  when  her  heart  was 


THE  PBIVILEGE  OF  WORKING.  601 

bound  up  in  it  ?  In  the  hour  of  love,  who  ever  could  say  all  that 
he  wanted  to  say,  or  express  all  that  he  felt,  or  do  all  that  he  desired 
to  do  ?     How  poor,  to  love,  is  the  best  offering  of  love ! 

No  one  ever  had  a  more  vivid  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  work 
which  God  was  carrying  on  in  the  earth  than  the  apostle  Paul. 
Of  the  redemption  of  men  from  the  bondage  of  the  flesh  to  the  liberty 
of  the  Spirit ;  of  the  joyfulness,  the  beauty,  the  creative  admirable- 
ness  of  that  work  Avhich  was  going  on — he  had  a  very  clear  and 
abiding  conception.  Men  generally  think  of  the  world,  and  of  God's 
work  in  history,  from  their  exterior.  We  trace  the  development  of 
commei'ce,  the  development  of  art,  and  of  the  mechanic  arts,  the 
upbuilding  and  wasting  of  kingdoms,  bringing  in  more  or  less  of  the 
moral  element ;  but  to  the  apostle  Paul  the  whole  history  of  this 
world  lay  in  its  interior.  Although  the  wisdom  and  love  of  your 
neighbor  are  represented  to  you  by  the  emblem  of  the  body,  yet, 
after  all,  the  real  man  that  you  think  of  is  the  interior  and  invisible 
man.  And  God's  work,  to  the  apostle  Paul,  was  that  spiritualizing, 
Christianizing  work  which  was  going  on. 

The  kingdom  of  God  came  not  with  observation.  That  king- 
dom was  described  as  leaven  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal.  And 
the  leaven  was  not  less  there,  and  was  not  less  powerful  in  its  work- 
ing, because  it  was  invisible.  The  apostle  saw  all  things  in  this 
light  of  the  interior  meaning.  Everything  in  this  world  to  him  was 
to  be  estimated  by  its  relation  to  man's  spiritual  development  and 
growth.  What  the  ground  was  worth,  what  the  spider  was  worth, 
what  the  throne  was  worth,  what  the  merchant  and  his  merchandise  ' 
were  worth,  was  to  be  determined  by  their  effect  upon  man's  spir- 
itual nature.    The  apostle  saw  within.    He  was  a  seer  in  that  regard. 

The  wonder  of  the  future  was  added  to  this.  There  is  to  be  a 
history  yet  in  this  world,  compared  with  which  all  past  history  is  as 
nothing.  I  believe  that  we  are  just  about  in  the  month  of  March  in 
the  world's  great  year.  We  have  got  through  the  winter,  and  are  / 
in  the  blustering  days  when  nature  does  not  know  whether  she  means 
to  be  hot  or  cold ;  and  the  world  is  full  of  wars  and  commotions  and 
storms.  And  yet,  many  beautiful  things  are  developed.  Thei-e  is  a 
great  deal  that  is  sweet  and  delightful;  but  it  is  March  weather,  with 
here  a  bright  day,  and  there  a  dark  and  stormy  day. 

Is  this  a  modern  idea  ?  To  a  great  extent  it  is.  It  is  largely  the 
out<^rowth  of  modern  habits  of  thought.  Did  the  apostle  believe 
there  was  to  be  a  future  of  Christ's  work  on  this  earth  ?  We  should 
expect  that  as  a  Jew  he  would  have  believed  it ;  for  the  Jews  be- 
lieved that  the  whole  world  was  to  be  given  to  the  Messiah ;  and 
when  Christ  came,  if  he  would  have  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a 


502  THE  FBIVILEGE  OF  WOBKING. 

Jewish  phalanx,  and  accepted  their  prejudices  and  hatreds  and  no- 
tions, every  Pharisee,  every  Scribe  and  every  scoundrel,  would  have 
bowed  before  him  and  taken  hira  to  be  their  king.  It  was  because 
he  would  not  do  this  that  he  was  rejected.  The  Jews,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few,  did  not  believe  in  a  near  and  important  consumma- 
tion. They  believed  that  the  earth  was  to  be  redeemed ;  only  Jeru- 
salem was  to  be  first  redeemed,  and  the  Jews,  the  aristocrats  of  the 
globe,  were  to  be  the  instruments  by  which  Christ  would  redeem 
the  world.  They  believed  that  there  was  to  be  a  great  future  on 
the  earth ;  but  it  looks  as  though  the  apostle  Paul  did  not  believe 
in  it.  For  instance,  if  you  turn  to  such  language  as  you  will  find 
in  the  1st  of  Thessalonians,  it  seems  impossible  to  suppose  that  Paul 
did  not  expect  that  Christ  would  come  in  his  day : 

"  This  we  say  unto  you  by  the  word  of  Ihe  Lord,  that  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not  prevent  [go  before,  an- 
ticipate] them  which  are  asleep  [or  dead].  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  de- 
scend from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with 
the  trump  of  God:  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first:  then  we  which 
are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds, 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air:  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.  Where- 
fore comfort  one  another  with  these  words." 

There  is  no  getting  away  from  that.  If  it  means  anything,  it 
means  that  the  writer  thought  that  before  he  died  he  should  stand 
with  his  companions  and  see  the  consummation  of  all  things. 

Nor  can  you  read  the  following  passage  in  the  15th  chapter  of 
1st  Corinthians,  without  coming  to  the  same  conclusion,  in  regard 
to  Paul's  impression  on  this  subject ; 

"  We  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed,  in  a  moment,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye." 

In  this  chapter  Paul  goes  through  that  same  thought  precisely. 
Therefore  it  has  been  said  that  he  believed  there  was  to  be  no 
great  future  of  Christianity  in  this  world ;  that  there  was  to  be 
a  cataclysm ;  and  that  in  his  own  day  it  was  to  be  consummated. 
And,  indeed,  it  looks  very  much  so. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  look  at  such  a  passage  as  this,  in  the  1st 
chapter  of  Philippians,  and  the  20th  verse: 

"According  to  my  earnest  expectation  and  my  hope,  that  in  nothing  I 
shall  be  ashamed,  but  that  with  all  boldness,  as  always,  so  now  also  Christ 
shall  be  magnified  in  my  body,  whether  it  be  by  life,  or  by  death.  For  me  to 
live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain.  But  if  I  lire  in  the  flesh,  this  is  the  fruit 
of  my  labor :  yet  what  I  shall  choose  I  wot  not.  For  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt 
two,  having  a  desire  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ;  wbijh  is  far  better: 
nevertheless  to  abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for  you." 

Here  you  perceive  that  the  apostle  Paul  expects  to  live,  and  die, 
just  like  anybody  else,  and  go  to  Christ  on  the  other  side,  leaving 
the  work  behind.  He  says  the  work  leads  me  to  want  to  live,  but  I 
shall  leave  it  behind."     That  does  not  sound  as  though  he  expected 


TEB  PEIVILEGE  OF  WORKING.  603 

that  Christ  would  come,  and  that  the  work  Avould  be  wound  up.  "I 
desire  to  live  for  the  sake  of  the  work,"  he  said  ;  "  although  when  I 
think  of  Christ  I  desire  to  depart." 

You  will  find  this  same  thing  in  the  2nd  Epistle  to  Timothy : 
"  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  aud  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand. 
I  have  fought  a  good  flght,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith:  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness,  which 
the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day:  aud  not  to  me 
only,  but  uuto  all  them  also  that  love  his  appearing." 

Here  is  no  idea  of  a  precipitate  consummation.  Here  is  the  reg- 
ular modern  thought — namely,  that  there  is  to  be  an  indefinite  con- 
tinuance of  the  work  of  God.  "  I  shall  die,  and  go  and  inherit  my 
crown  ;  and  in  long  succession  others  will  go  up  after  me  " — that  is 
the  purport  of  the  apostle's  declaration. 

How  are  we  to  reconcile  these  things?  I  have  no  doubt  that  in 
certain  ecstatic  visions,  the  apostle  saw  the  consummation  so  near, 
that  it  seemed  to  him  as  though  there  was  not  a  handsbreadth  be- 
tween the  end  and  himself;  and  he  spoke  accordingly.  Doubtless 
at  other  times  he  had  the  view  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  was  to 
have  a  future  in  this  world — periods  of  evolution  and  extension. 
How  long  he  did  not  know.  And  so  he  fluctuated  between  these 
two  ideas.  That  he  felt  that  he  was  going  to  die  and  go  up  to 
heaven,  and  that  the  church  would  continue  on  earth,  and  go  for- 
ward for  ages,  we  do  not  doubt ;  and  that  he  had  a  clear  and  correct 
conception  of  the  coming  glory  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth,  and 
that  it  was  to  be  a  kingdom  built  without  hands,  a  mighty  spiritual 
kingdom,  and  that  compared  to  that  which  was  to  come  all  the  glory 
of  the  past  of  the  race  was  but  as  a  taper  comj)ared  with  the  sun- 
light, we  do  not  doubt. 

Now,  he  looked  upon  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  that 
were  to  come,  and  he  saw  how  glorious  men  were  to  be.  He  saw, 
doubtless,  in  prophetic  vision,  at  times,  what  nations  were  yet  to 
become.  Without  doubt,  much  that  he  saw  was  obscure ;  much  of 
it  was  enveloped  in  a  golden  haze ;  but  there  was  much  tliat  was 
clear  to  his  mind.  And  when  he  thought  that  he  was  to  build  that 
great  kingdom,  that  his  hands  were  now  helping  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion stones,  the  magnitude  and  the  grandeur  of  the  work  over- 
whelmed him,  and  he  felt  that  it  was  a  privilege  to  be  permitted  to 
labor  in  such  a  great  development.  And  looking  at  it  more  in  de- 
tail, I  do  not  know  how  any  one  can  help  feeling  so.  Consider  the 
salvation  of  a  single  soul;  the  rescuing  of  a  man  from  his  animal  life* 
the  briiiging  him  under  that  divine  influence  by  which  he  is  trans- 
formed into  a  truly  spiritual  being,  the  beauty  of  heaven  beo-innino-  to 
grow  upon  him ;  the  blessedness  and  the  glory  of  God  beo-innino-  to 


504  THE  PBIVILBGH  OF  WOBKINQ. 

rest  upon  his  head.  To  be  permitted  to  lead  one  single  soul  to 
Christ,  if  one  only  stood  at  the  right  point  of  view,  would  seem  to 
him  more  than  a  crown,  and  more  than  a  coronet  given  by  a  king's 
hand. 

When  Raphael  was  executing  the  various  frescoes  which  he  was 
commissioned  to  paint  by  the  Roman  Papal  government,  he  drew 
the  figures,  determining  the  subjects,  and  grouping  the  difterent  ele- 
ments. He  worked  the  designs  out  with  his  pencil.  Then  he  put 
them  into  his  scholars'  hands,  and  they  went  on  and  filled  them  out. 
And  after  they  had  done  the  best  they  could,  when  their  part  of  the 
work  was  completed,  Raphael  was  accustomed  to  take  his  pencil  and 
give  the  pictures  a  last  finish.  And  so  he  was  the  author  and  tlie 
finisher  of  the  pictures  worked  upon  by  these  his  apostles. 

To  be  permitted  to  be  with  Raphael,  and  belong  to  his  school, 
and  paint  upon  the  wall  a  picture  that  came  from  his  brain,  and  was 
to  bear  his  name,  was  thought  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  privileges, 
and  was  enough  to  make  an  artist's  reputation. 

We  are  of  Christ's  school.  He  lays  out  the  work.  We  execute 
some  of  its  intermediate  stages,  while  his  grace  perfects  what  we  do. 
And  if  we  were  in  a  condition  of  true  spiritual-mindedness,  we  should 
feel  that  it  was  an  unspeakable  favor  that  we  were  permitted  to  work 
out  these  tiessed  figures,  these  glorious  natures,  these  living  pictures, 
which  are  to  shine  forever  and  forever  in  the  heavenly  land. 

No  man  ever  had  more  of  what  I  may  call  spiritual  esprit  de  corps 
than  the  apostle.  No  man  ever  carried  about  with  him  such  a  sense 
of  who  was  working  with  him.  No  man  ever  so  well  understood  the 
grandeur  of  the  campaign  on  which  he  had  entered,  or  was  so  con- 
scious of  the  pi'esence  of  the  soldiers  that  were  alongside  of  him.  I 
do  not  mean  that  he  referred  to  the  holy  men  who  were  living  on 
the  earth,  though  he  reverenced  and  honored  them.  But  he  felt,  "I 
am  a  laborer  together  with  God."  He  felt  that  he  was  surrounded 
by  hosts,  clouds,  of  witnesses. 

Our  heavens  have  a  drought  in  them,  I  think.  In  our  dusty 
modei'u  times,  in  our  hard  materialism,  we  have  swept  out  of  our 
sky  pretty  much  everything  that  we  cannot  see.  We  believe  in 
telescopes,  and  in  everything  that  the  telescope  believes  in,  but  in 
nothing  else. 

The  Apostle  Paul  had  a  wonderfully  populous  heaven  above  his 
head.  All  the  hosts  of  God,  to  his  thinking,  were  at  work.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  ransomed  did  not  go  into  everlasting  indolence  and 
call  it  rest.  He  believed  that  the  heaven  was  thronged  with  spirit- 
workers,  and  that  they  had  sympathy  with  the  work ;  that  they 
liked  it  not  only,  but  were  commissioned  to  help  perform  it ;  and 


TEE  PRIVILEGE  OF  WORKING.  505 

that  time,  and  all  the  cope,  wei-e  filled  full  of  God,  and  God's  workers. 
And  he  felt  that  he  was  ever  working  in  the  midst  of  this  great 
and  royal  company,  never  unattended,  never  alone.  And  when  he 
was  ui)on  the  sea,  or  in  the  wilderness,  or  in  the  persecuting  city, 
more  were  they  that  were  for  him  than  they  that  Avere  against 
him.  All  the  way  through  he  worked  with  a  magnificent  sense  of 
companionship.  And  it  was  this  which  made  him  feel  that  he  was 
highly  privileged.  To  be  admitted  into  such  a  working  company 
was  a  great  thing. 

You  think  you  do  not  believe  in  that.     Yes  you  do.     Every  one 
of  you,  if  you  were  to  go  to  Europe,  would  wish  that  you  had  an 
introduction  into  the  Court  of  Queen  Victoria,     And  if  it  so  hap- 
pened that  you  were  invited  to  a  royal  reception,  you  Avould  write 
home  about  it,  and  all  your  friends  would  know  it,  and  you  would  ' 
not  forget  it  to  the  day  of  your  death.     If  a  woman,  of  flesh  and 
blood  like  yourselves,  only  in  royal  conditions,  takes  notice  of  you, 
and  invites  you  to  go  where  you  can  just  see  her,  look  at  her,  your 
pride  and  vanity  are  gratified ;  for  the  spirit  of  self-seeking,  and 
the  appetites  and  lusts  are  about  the  same  the  world  over,  through 
all  time,  and  in  all  governments.     Men  feel  that   when  they  are  in- 
vited to  see  such  a  man  as  Humboldt,  they  are  honored.     They  feel 
that  when  they  are  invit-ed  to  the  country  seats  of  nobles,  they  are 
honored.     They  admit  it  to  themselves,  whether  they  admit  it  to  i 
their  fellows  or  not.     There  is  a  universal  feeling  of  this  sort.    And 
Paul  had  it.  But  I  do  not  think  he  felt  that  Agrippa  had  anything  to 
give  him,     I  do  not  think  that  if  it  had  been  any  monarch,  even 
Caesar,  Paul  would  have  felt  particularly  abashed  in  the  royal  pres- 
ence ;  but  to  him  it  was  God,  it  was  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  leading 
forth  the  spiritual  forces  of  the  universe,  and  was  King ;  and  the 
heavenly  host  were  the  aristocrats  and  nobles.     And  he  felt  that  he 
was  called  into  their  company.     And  to  be  called  into  such  com- 
pany touched  the  feeling  of  humanity  in  him,  as  well  as  that  of  re- 
joicing pride ;  and  he  felt  it  to  be  an  unspeakable  privilege  to  be 
allowed  to  work  with  such  workmen. 

No  one  ever  seems  to  have  had  so  grand  and  magnificent  a 
sense  of  the  final  outcome  of  God's  moral  government  over  this 
world  as  the  Apostle  Paul.  There  is  a  great  deal  more  meaning  in 
many  of  the  passages  of  the  Bible  than  we  can  give  to  them.  The 
fact  is  that  many  of  the  texts  of  Scripture  kill  sermons  dead.  A  ' 
wise  preacher  skips  the  best  texts.     He  cannot  work  them  up. 

When  mahogany  was  first  introduced  into  Europe,  there  was 
not  a  carpenter  shop  in  any  kingdom  that  had  tools  highly  tem-    . 
pered  enough  to  work  it.     It  broke  every  tool  that  there  was,  and 


506  THE  FBIVILEGE  OF  WOBKING. 

new  tools  had  to  be  made,  of  better  steel,  and  steel  of  a  hio-her 
temper.  And  our  tools  with  which  we  handle  texts,  are  not  of  o-ood 
enough  material.  We  must  have  new  ones  with  better  material, 
and  material  more  highly  tempered.     Here  is  this  passage  : 

"  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  But  every 
man  in  his  own  order:  Christ  the  first-fruits;  aftern^ard  they  that  are 
Christ's  at  his  coming.    Then  cometh  the  end." 

How  far  away  that  magnificent  end  is  we  do  not  know.  But  in 
the  contemplation  of  it  our  imagination  lifts  itself,  and  spreads  its 
wings,  as  the  eagle  spreads  his. 

"Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom 
to  God,  even  the  Father;  when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and  all  au- 
thority and  powtr.  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under 
his  ft  et.  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death.  For  he  hath 
put  all  things  uuder  his  feet.  But  when  he  saith  all  things  are  put  under 
him,  it  is  manift  st  that  he  is  excepted  which  did  put  all  things  under  him. 
And  when  all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also 
himself  be  subject  unto  him  that  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God  may 
be  all  in  all." 

Who  can  give  an  interpretation  of  that  ?  He  that  dare,  let  him 
do  it ;  but  not  I.  I  should  as  soon  think  of  setting  a  mouse  at  sur- 
veying the  chain  of  the  Andes,  and  making  a  typographical  report, 
as  to  take  this  magnificent  vision  of  the  consummation  of  God's 
mediatorial  government  in  the  universe,  including  this  world,  and 
what  others  we  know  not,  and  undertake,  without  experience,  and 
without  anything  else  but  the  blazonry  of  these  grand  figures,  to 
give  any  precise  idea  of  what  it  was — only  this  :  that  after  a  cam- 
paign, magnificently  planned  and  nobly  conducted,  the  General 
comes  back  to  his  King,  and  having  defeated  everything  in  the  field, 
and  having  subdued  all  the  provinces,  and  holding  in  his  hands  the 
keys  of  cities,  lays  them  at  his  King's  feet,  and  then  takes  his  place 
near  by  his  seat.     That  is  the  figure.  " 

So  when  the  vast  work  of  God  on  earth  and  in  heaven  shall  have 
been  done,  in  the  far  and  grand  future,  Christ  shall  come  back,  and 
shall  lay  before  God  the  tokens  of  universal  victory,  and  God  shall 
be  all  and  in  aU.  Whether  it  shall  be  by  the  resumption  of  the 
Son,  or  whether  by  some  co-equality,  or  some  other  steps,  no  man 
knows,  and  no  man  need  try  to  know.  Suflicient  it  is  that  it  shall 
be  a  scene  of  unequaled  grandeur  and  glory. 

Paul  worked  with  that  in  his  mind.  He  had  a  horizon  that 
swept  as  far  as  thought.  And  he  could  not  be  lifted  up  into  petty 
pride  and  vanity  by  the  consciousness  of  what  he  was  doing,  of  who 
his  companions  were,  of  what  the  field  was  on  which  he  labored,  of 
who  it  was  that  led  him,  and  of  what  was  the  consummation  of  this 
great  scheme  in  which  he  was  but  a  factor  and  single  unit. 

We  may,  I  think,  take  from  this  example  of  Paul  even  more  les- 


THE  FBIVILEGE  OF  WORKING.  507 

sons  than  we  have  attempted  to  draw  as  we  have  gone  on.  His 
sense  of  the  pi'ivilege,  the  great  favor,  of  being  allowed  to  work  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,  ought  to  give  us  some  new  ideas,  and  some 
new  issues  to  old  ideas. 

First,  we  are  living  in  an  age  which  is  apt  to  glorify  the  indi- 
vidual. 2^he  sovereignty  of  man  is  one  of  the  cant  phrases  of  the 
day.  There  is  a  great  deal  in  philosophy,  as  well  as  a  great  deal  in 
the  best  part  of  human  nature,  which  is  leading  men  to  feel  that 
they  are  immensely  important.  Man  is  important  in  God :  out 
of  God  he  is  worthless.  But  philosophy  makes  man  feel  that,  in 
and  of  himself,  without  any  regard  to  his  origin,  without  regard  to 
the  branch  on  which  he  is  growing,  he  is  individually  something 
great.  This  feeling  is  fostered  by  the  institutions  under  which  he 
lives.  Our  institutions  tend  to  make  everybody  independent.  We 
are  talking  about  the  rights  of  the  individual.  We  are  seeking  to 
secure  them.  We  are  stimulatioig  the  individual,  and  we  are  en- 
deavoring to  stimulate  the  great  mass  of  men,  so  that  every  indi- 
vidual bel®nging  to  the  republic  shall  be  a  factor  of  power.  That 
is  air  right.  But  the  overaction  of  this  tendency  is  in  the  direction 
of  jiride  and  vanity — democratic  pride  ;  philosophic  pride  ;  j^ride 
of  individuality ;  the  consciousness  of  our  own  strength,  which 
often  ripens  into  arrogance.  And  this  destroys  that  fine  sense  of 
spiritual  dependence  which  belongs  to  the  noblest  natures.  It  takes 
us  largely  out  of  the  feeling  and  spirit  of  Gospel  life.  It  takes 
us  out  of  household  life.  It  takes  us  out  of  that  life  in  which  we 
are  woven  into  the  divine  nature,  and  makes  us  idols. 

Now,  we  Avant  a  sense  of  personal  unworthiness.  We  are  not  in 
danger,  in  this  nation,  of  being  crushed  in  our  pride  too  much.  In 
some  nations  there  is  danger,  where  the  king  crushes  one  half,  and 
the  priest  crushes  the  other  half,  of  being  unmanly,  and  ground 
down  into  a  sordid  submission  ;  but  that  is  not  a  temptation  of  our 
nation,  either  in  their  native  or  imported  dispositions.  In  this  coun- 
try we  are  in  no  danger  of  being  too  humble.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  need,  more  than  almost  anything  else,  influences  that  shall  ra- 
tionally, intelligently,  promote  some  sense  of  our  relative  weakness 
in  the  great  scheme  of  God  in  this  world.  We  need  something 
which  shall  make  us  feel  that  nature  did  not  srive  us  evervthino- : 
that  redemption  came  by  Jesus  Christ.  We  need  something  that 
shall  teach  us  that  there  is  not  alone  a  Son,  but  a  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness ;  that  there  is  not  alone  a  providence,  but  a  grace  of  God.  We 
need  something  that  shall  keep  alive  in  our  minds  a  sense  of  the 
grandeur  of  that  work  which  is  going  on,  and  the  glory  of  the  fu- 
ture of  that  work,  and  its  outcome  in  this  world,  so  that  we  shall 


508  TEE  PRIVILEGE  OF  WORKING. 

not  seem  to  ourselves  to  be  conferring  favors,  but  rather  receiving 
favors,  when  we  are  permitted  to  join  our  force  with  God  and  our 
fellow  men,  and  work  for  the  world  and  for  eternity. 

This  S'ubject  may  comfort  those  who  are  weary  of  work  ;  or 
rather,  it  may  rebuke  them,  and  so  convert  them.  There  be  many 
who  say,  "  Have  I  not  fulfilled  my  duty  ?"  "  As  long  ago  as  I  can 
remember,"  says  one,  "  I  have  been  working  in  the  Sunday-school, 
and  in  the  industrial  school  ;  but  now  I  am  married,  and  duties  at 
home  engage  me,  and  I  feel  as  though  I  had  done  my  share."  What 
is  your  share  f  Do  you  suppose  work  is  a  contribution-box,  and 
that  God  is  a  beggar,  and  that  he  is  passing  it  down  to  you,  and  that 
you  are  to  throw  in  your  share  f  The  box  comes  round,  and  it  must 
be  filled  up.  And  what  do  you  owe  ?  Do  you  not  owe  life  in  its 
totality  ?  That  which  you  give  to  the  household  is  a  part  of  what 
you  are  giving  to  the  world.  And  if  you  have  time  and  power  tc 
do  more,  it  is  not  a  benefaction.  You  are  not  benefactors  conferring 
benefits  on  the  community.  It  is  a  privilege  that  you  are  permitted 
to  rear  in  the  household,  children  for  God  and  glory. 
1  Ah  !  you  do  not  know  what  you  are  doing.  You  carry  your 
little  babe.  Each  one's  child,  you  know,  is  a  paragon!  And  you 
dress  it,  and  love  it,  and  bear  it  about  in  your  arms,  and  friends  ad- 
mire it,  and  how  proud  you  are  !  There  is  something  amiable  and 
lovable  and  beautiful  in  this  ;  but  it  is  only  an  emblem — for  that 
babe  you  carry  for  friends  to  admire  before  there  is  anything  admir- 
able about  it,  so  far  as  outward  appearances  are  concerned.  But 
when  you  have  trained  it,  and  shaped  it,  and  its  character  has  been 
made  illustrious,  and  you  have  brought  it  before  God,  before  Christ, 
and  into  the  presence  of  the  whole  household  of  faith,  to  be  loved 
and  admired,  then,  O  mother,  you  will  feel,  in  the  presence  of  God 
and  the  holy  angels,  that  you  have  had  an  unspeakable  privilege. 
No  person  will  ever  bring  a  child  in  his  arms  to  Jesus  and  not  feel 
that  he  has  been  himself  crowned  in  having  permission  thus  to  bring 
a  human  being  home  to  glory. 

If  God  gives  you  work  in  the  household,  and  that  absorbs  your 
talents,  well  and  good  ;  but  if  you  have  more  talent  and  power  than 
is  demanded  in  the  household  ;  if  by  a  wise  economy  you  are  quali- 
fied to  do  something  outside  of  the  household  as  well  as  within  it, 
do  not  fail  to  see  your  privilege.  Oftentimes  it  is  the  case  that  a 
person  can  do  work  as  a  candle  does,  which  gives  light  to  all  that 
are  in  the  room,  but,  not  stopping  there,  throws  light  through  the 
window  and  along  the  road  as  well.  What  mothers  and  fathers  do 
in  their  homes  may  be  reflected  far  beyond  the  human  sphere 
to  whicli  they  are  confined,  and  bless  many  others  besides  their  own 


TRE  FEIYILEGB  OF  WOBKING,  509 

families.  And  if  you  are  working  in  the  household,  do  not  demean 
yourself  or  dishonor  yourself  by  saying,  "  I  have  done  about  my 
part  ;  I  have  worked  long  enough."  Never  !  never  I  Not  until  the 
last  heart-beat,  not  until  the  last  expiring  throb  of  power,  will  you 
have  done  enough  for  Him  who  gave  all  for  you,  and  who  gives  all 
for  you. 

You  belong  to  a  different  family  from  that  of  the  vulgar  and  sel- 
fish. You  belong  to  the  generous,  to  the  noble,  to  the  true,  to  the 
Christlike,  to  the  heavenly.  Do  not,  therefore,  measure  and  parti- 
tion off  your  bounds.  Work  as  long  as  there  is  work  and  you  have 
strength  to  do  it;  and  count  it  a  blessing,  every  day,  that  God  gives 
you  something  to  do. 

So,  whenever  you  have  a  chance  to  put  in  a  blow,  put  in  a  blow 
with  heartiness,  and  be  glad  of  it.  Be  willing,  generous,  brave  sol- 
diers. When,  in  time  of  danger,  the  general  of  an  army  calls  for  a 
forlorn  hope  to  carry  an  important  position,  see  how  some  noble 
natures,  who  have  as  much  to  live  for  as  you  or  anybody  else, 
quarrel  for  permission  to  do  that  work.  And  see  how  they  take  their 
lives  in  their  hands,  and  plunge  into  the  cloud  of  death,  almost  not 
caring  what  befalls  them.  And  when  Christ's  battle  opens,  and  he 
calls  for  volunteers,  and  it  is  for  us  to  labor,  and  suffer,  and  give  up 
all  that  we  have  and  all  that  we  are  to  have,  let  us  not  shrink  from 
the  undertaking.  Do  not  weary  in  well-doing.  You  have  gone  a 
great  many  times,  and  a  great  way  off,  and  your  feet  grow  tired ; 
but  do  not  give  up.  Are  you  pondering  whether  you  shall  leave  that 
class  ?  Are  you  questioning  whether  it  is  your  duty  to  continue  to 
work  in  that  neighborhood  ?  Are  you  beginning  to  say,  "  Somebody 
else  must  take  this  work,  for  I  have  done  my  share  "  ?  Oh,  rebuke 
the  ignominy  of  such  a  thought  as  that.  Work  on,  my  brother ; 
work  on  my  sister  ;  God  needs  you,  and  man  needs  you.  Until 
tears  are  wiped  away,  and  hearts  cease  to  ache,  and  sin  no  longer 
desolates,  you  have  a  mission  in  this  world,  and  you  must  not  give 
up  your  work.  Remember  that  you  are  not  working  because  you 
are  conferring  a  favor,  but  because  it  is  your  privilege  to  work. 

There  are  many  who  are  almost  out  of  patience  because  they  are 
so  continually  approached  with  solicitations  to  do  something.  There 
are  so  many  colleges  to  build,  so  many  schools  to  found,  so  many 
home  missionaries  to  support,  so  many  foreign  missionaries  to  send 
away,  so  many  churches  to  be  maintained,  so  many  societies  to  be 
kept  up,  so  many  poor  people  to  be  taken  care  of,  so  many  calls  for 
charity,  that  men  get  out  of  patience.  I  suppose  I  am  no  worse  than 
you  are  in  this  respect,  and  sometimes  I  feel  as  though  I  could  not 
bear  solicitation.    Do  you  ever  lose  your  patience  ?   Then  you  know 


510  IRE  PRIVILEGE  OF  WOBKING. 

how  to  pity  me.  Do  you  ever  get  tired,  and  want  to  shut  the  door 
in  the  face  of  Providence,  and  say,  "  You  have  come  often  enough  "  ? 
Then  you  know  just  how  guilty  I  am.  Do  you  ever  feel,  "  I  wish  I 
were  dead  "  ?  Then  you  know  how  I  feel.  And  do  you,  when  you 
come  to  you  better  self,  feel  very  much  ashamed  of  it  ?  Then  you 
know  how  I  feel  when  I  come  to  my  better  self  In  those  golden 
moments,  when  I  think  of  what  Christ  has  done  for  me,  when  he  is 
more  than  father  or  mother  to  me,  when  I  have  some  sense  of  the 
arms  of  God  in  infinite  love  around  about  me,  when  I  look  up  into 
the  face  of  the  forgiving  and  unwearied  Saviour — the  faithful  One — 
and  think  that  I  was  ever  tired  of  his  work,  I  am  ashamed.  A  child  is 
sometimes  fretful,  when  it  is  sick,  even  to  the  mother,  and  pushes  her 
away  with  its  hand;  and  with  tears,  when  it  gets  Avell,  asks  her  forgive- 
ness. Even  though  it  was  sickness  that  did  it,  it  can  scarcely  for- 
give itself  And  so  a  soul  feels  that  is  impatient  with  God.  Christ 
redeemed  you  by  his  precious  blood  ;  and  if  you  have  been  endowed 
with  strength  to  amass  property,  and  he  wants  your  treasure,  and 
he  appeals  to  your  conscience  and  reason,  and  says,  "  You  are  my 
steward,  and  I  gave  you  life  and  health  that  you  might  work  for  me 
and  your  fellow  men,"  do  not  withhold  it  from  him.  Is  there  any- 
thing which  you  possess  that  is  too  good  for  Christ — talent,  money, 
labor,  or  suffering  ?  "  To  you  it  is  given  to  suffer  with  Christ,"  says 
the  apostle,  "  as  though  you  were  distributing  precious  gifts."  My 
dear  brethren,  be  not  weary  in  well-doing. 

Well,  how  long  shall  you  work,  then  ?  As  long  as  you  live. 
How  long  ?  Till  there  is  uq  more  war  nor  thunder  nor  wretched- 
ness on  the  earth  ;  till  fliere  is  no  more  slavery  to  mar  and  disfigure 
the  image  of  God  in  man  ;  till  there  is  no  more  superstition  to  blind- 
fold men,  and  plunge  them  into  destruction  ;  till  there  is  no  more 
ignorance  to  mislead  men,  and  cheat  them  of  their  birthright ;  till 
there  is  no  more  pride,  or  selfishness,  or  avarice,  or  power  of  the 
air,  to  lord  it  over  the  spirits  of  God's  people.  You  are  to  work  till 
all  things  end.  You  are  enlisted  for  the  war.  If  you  enlisted  under 
Christ's  banner,  you  enlisted  to  remain  as  long  as  your  life  shall  last. 
You  are  not  a  three  months'  or  a  six-months'  man.  And  you  have 
reason  to  sing  for  gladness  that  you  ai'e  permitted  to  go  into  Christ's 
army  and  work  until  the  c<  nflict  is  ended. 

The  things  which  we  do  here  perish  in  the  doing,  almost.  When 
I  we  write  our  names  in  time,  it  is  as  when  men  write  their  name 

upon  the  sand.  The  ocean  is  at  it  almost  before  they  leave  it.  The 
waves  roll  over  it  and  soon  obliterate  it.  Such  is  fame  in  this  world. 
The  world  is  too  full  to  remember  everybody.  Almost  everybody 
must  be  forgotten.     Only  here  and  there  are  the  names  of  men  per- 


TEE  PRIVILEGE  OF  WOIiKING.  511 

pctuatecl,  and  generally  they  are  men  who  do  not  expect  it.  The 
work  which  will  be  remembered  is  that  which  is  registered  above. 
You  must  strike  clear  through  beyond  the  physical,  you  must  work 
where  the  angels  shall  require  you  to  work,  you  must  make  an  im- 
pression on  the  living  hearts,  the  palpitating  souls,  of  men.  And 
to  do  this,  devote  your  whole  self — your  body,  your  talent,  your 
property.  Put  everything  God  has  given  you  into  this  great 
spiritualizing  work.  And  rejoice  that  God  has  permitted  you  to 
work.  Die  with  your  harness  on.  When  the  Master  comes,  let  him 
find  you  working.  And  go  up  from  the  sweat  and  the  toH,  from 
the  infirmity,  if  need  be,  and  the  decrepitude,  of  earthly  fidelity, 
into  the  blessedness  of  eternal  youth.  And  one  moment's  look  of 
the  Eye  of  Love  will  be  more  to  you  than  all  the  glories  of  the 
round  globe.  And  when  the  Ineffable  shall  say,  "  "Well  done,  good 
and  fiiithful  servant,  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord,"  all  the  sym- 
phonies that  ever  sighed  music,  and  all  the  sweet  sounds  of  whis- 
pered love,  and  all  that  the  ear  has  drank  in  upon  earth,  will  not 
equal  the  ecstasy  which  will  come  to  your  heart  in  that  one  single 
word. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMOK 

Our  heavenly  Father,  thou  hast  taupjht  us  not  to  have  fear,  except  the 
fear  of  love.  Thou  hast  unveiled  thyself ;  and  with  a  voice  that  nations 
could  not  speak,  through  holy  men  of  old  thou  hast  made  known  to  us  what 
thou  art,  and  what  are  thy  dispositions,  and  what  is  thy  will,  and  wherein 
our  duty  lies.  And  we  rejoice  that  in  that  disclosure,  while  there  is  some- 
thing for  fear,  there  is  more  for  hope,  and  that  every  special  act  of  obedience 
brings  peace  and  gladness  in  widening  circles  forevermore.  Blessed  are 
they  to  whom  thou  hast  revealed  this,  not  by  the  outward  letter,  but  by  the 
emotion  of  the  heart,  and  by  the  unuttered  communication  of  the  Spirit. 
How  blessed  are  they  who  have  been  taught  that  they  are  the  children  of 
God,  and  have  in  themselves  the  witness  and  the  joy!  How  blessed  are 
they  who  are  armed  against  everything  that  can  assault  their  peace,  and 
who  know  that  if  God  is  for  them,  none  can  be  against  them  to  harm  them ! 

Blessed  are  they  whose  world  is  not  that  which  the  eye  can  measure  and 
the  hand  handle,  but  who  are  influenced  by  the  eternal  world,  and  who, 
being  sons  of  God,  know  that  they  are  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with 
Jesus. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  unto  all  of  us  who  have  named  thy  name,  more 
insight  of  thy  grace ;  more  personal  experience  of  thy  presence  and  of  thy 
love ;  more  contrition  for  our  own  sinfulness ;  more  gratitude  for  thy  faith- 
fulness ;  more  love  for  the  glory  of  thy  nature ;  more  sympathy  to*r  that 
great  work  of  salvation  which  thou  art  carrying  forward  in  time  and  upon 
the  earth. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  we  may  live  more  and  more  toward  thee; 
toward  things  spiritual ;  toward  the  ineffable ;  toward  treasure  that  cannot 


512  THE  FBIYILEGE  OF  WOBKING. 

be  exchanged,  nor  bought,  nor  sold,  nor  lost,  but  which  once  won,  is  won 
forever.  Oh,  grant  that  our  lives  may  be  evermore  as  the  flowers,  looking 
to  the  Sun,  and  grow  bright  in  the  light  thereof.  May  our  souls  become 
rich  toward  God.  And  though  we  may  be  increased  in  outward  strength 
and  outward  goods,  may  we  cleave  to  our  confidence  in  thee.  May  we  be 
grateful  for  all  the  mercies  of  thy  providence  to  us— for  life ;  for  health ; 
for  household  mercies ;  for  the  great  comfort  of  our  children;  for  all  the 
goodness  which  thou  dost  strew  with  such  bounteous  hands  in  the  meagerest 
path,  and  which  overflows  in  many  places.  Grant  that  we  may  not  be 
unmindful  of  these  minor  blessings.  But  may  we  discern  that  they  are 
only  the  first-fruits,  the  earnests  of  thy  goodness  to  us.  May  we  discern 
that  for  the  soul  is  reserved  coronation ;  that  thy  providence  deals  bounti- 
fully here  with  our  bodies,  but  that  thy  grace  waits  to  crown  us  hereafter. 
And  may  we  all  know  that  we  are  the  sons  of  God,  and  feel  royalty  beating 
in  our  souls,  and  long  amidst  duty  and  care  and  labor,  in  those  moments 
when  the  soul  looks  away,  to  appear  in  Zion  and  before  God ;  there  to  know 
as  we  are  known ;  there  to  hush  every  sorrow ;  there  to  see  death  itself  over- 
thrown and  slain ;  there  to  rest  from  temptation,  and  from  sin,  and  to  be  as 
the  saints  and  the  angels  of  God. 

How  can  we  thank  thee  for  such  hope?  How  can  we  enough  bless  thee 
for  the  consolation  which  hath  already  been  ministered  to  us?  In  the 
greatness  of  the  Way  in  which  we  have  walked,  how  many  times  should  we 
have  failed,  but  for  our  hope  in  God !  How  many  afQictions  have  broken 
upon  us  that  would  utterly  have  overthrown  us,  but  that  thou  didst  hold 
us !  Yes,  Lord,  thou  hast  been  a  pavilion,  and  we  have  rim  into  thee,  and 
have  hid,  until  the  storm  was  overpast.  We  have  wondered  in  the  day  of 
trouble  that  we  seemed  to  ourselves  not  to  be  ourselves,  but  to  be  kept  in  a 
great  peace,  while  our  troubles  were  as  the  outward  storm  that  beat  upon 
the  house,  and  we  heard  the  peltings  of  it,  and  felt  that  we  were  secure,  and 
were  happy.  So  canst  thou  temper  affliction.  So  canst  thou  by  affl^iction 
release  us  from  our  passion  and  pride  and  worldliness.  So  in  the  midst  of 
affliction  canst  thou  kindle  in  us  the  strange  lights  of  coming  glory,  and  fill 
us  with  hope  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  rejoice  in  this  mystery  of  experience — in  this  incommunicable  life 
which  thou  hast  granted  unto  many  of  us.  How  many  are  there  that  were 
very  weak,  but  that  have  grown  strong  by  bearing  burdens !  How  many 
are  there  to  whom  the  outstretched  arms  of  Christ  have  been  as  the  wings  of 
a  mighty  bird !  And  bearing,  they  have  been  borne  upward,  and  carried 
above  all  trouble  and  all  sorrow.  How  hast  thou  made  the  very  word  more 
fruitful  of  thy  promises  than  seeds  are  that  come  forth  a  hundred  fold ! 
For  thou  art  He  that  dost  abundantly  more  than  we  ask  or  think.  And  this 
is  the  measure  of  thy  grace— not  of  our  desert,  nor  even  of  our  containing 
power.  It  is  the  measure  of  the  horizons  and  bounds  of  thine  own  heart- 
generosity  to  us.  And  so  we  are  always  more,  if  we  but  knew  our  joys,  our 
riches,  and  the  love  and  the  promises  that  wait  upon  us,  than  conquerors, 
through  Him  that  loved  us. 

And  now.  Lord,  we  mourn  over  our  unworthiness.  We  mourn  that  when 
thou  lookest  upon  us  there  is  no  such  sight  as  when  thou  lookest  upon  thy- 
self. For  all  thy  goodness,  how  much  selfishness  we  give  back !  For  all  the 
influences  that  swarm  the  heavenly  gate,  how  sordid  are  we!  How  full  are 
we  of  earthiness !  How  much  from  day  to  day  do  we  seek  the  bread  that 
perisheth,  and  the  things  which  come  from  men  !  How  are  we  effeminate, 
shrinking  from  suffering  for  Christ's  sake,  and  seeking  the  smoothest  paths, 
and  asking  that  ours  may  be  the  pleasantest  place  in  experience!  How  little 
is  there  in  us  of  that  endurance  which  thy  servants  of  old  had  I 


TEE  PBIVILEGE  OF  WOBKIKG.  518 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  forgive  our  sinfulness ;  our 
■vraut  of  sensibility  toward  thee ;  our  want  of  love  toward  those  that  thou 
dost  love.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  our  hearts  may  be  enlarged,  and  that 
we  may  endeavor,  though  it  be  only  feebly,  with  our  sympathy  to  follow 
thine  affection,  and  to  love  our  brethren — not  those  that  are  comely,  not 
those  that  already  bring  forth  the  blossoms  and  the  fruit.  As  thou  hast  had 
to  love  us  in  our  sins,  and  in  our  deformities,  and  in  our  sores,  and  in  our 
sicknesses,  and  hast  ministered  to  us ;  so  may  we  learn  to  take  up  those 
around  about  us  who  are  deformed,  and  are  filled  with  things  deceitful,  and 
are  not  comely  to  the  Lord,  nor  to  our  feeble  moral  sense.  May  we  learn  to 
ha%'e  patience  with  them,  and  compassion  upon  them,  and  to  long  for  their 
deliverance,  and  to  pray  for  them,  and,  if  need  be,  to  labor  for  them.  And 
may  we  not  call  this  a  sacrifice,  but  the  best  using  of  ourselves.  May  we 
live  to  do  good,  even  as  thou  didst  come  doing  good  in  thy  mortal  life,  our 
Exemplar  and  our  Head. 

We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  forgive  all  the  pride  that  we  have  had, 
and  all  the  vanity  that  we  have  had.  If  any  of  us  think  we  have  done  much 
for  the  Lord,  and  praised  our  own  wisdom,  and  looked  with  censoriousness 
upon  those  who  have  labored  less,  as  if  they  were  our  inferiors,  or  looked 
upon  them  with  pity  and  contempt,  forgive  us  that  we  have  arrogated  supe-  ■ 
riority  to  ourselves ;  that  we  have  sought  to  make  ourselves  seem  fruitful, 
when  we  were  all  unprofitable  servants.  If  thou  wert  to  reveal  the  truth  as 
it  is  to  the  heavenly  Eye,  we  should  seem  indolent  and  self-seeking ;  our  mo- 
tives would  seem  poor  and  mixed ;  and  at  best  we  should  seem  sinful,  and 
only  sinful.  And  yet,  thou  art  sparing  and  encouraging  us.  If  we  were 
perfect  thou  couldst  not  be  more  tender  in  thy  heart  than  thou  art  in 
all  the  ruggedness  of  our  sins.  Though  we  are  outcasts,  we  are  as  if  we  were 
royal;  and  though  we  do  not  understand,  and  do  not  reciprocate,  and  do 
not  know  how  even  to  accept  the  mercies  of  God  aright,  they  come  as  the 
dews  come  by  night.  They  come  as  the  light  comes  through  all  the  summer 
day.  And  this  is  the  royalty  of  thy  nature.  This  it  is  to  be  God :  to  be  full 
of  graciousness,  and  of  compassion,  pursuing  purity  and  truth  and  justice 
ua  all  thy  way,  but  pursuing  them  by  the  road  of  love.  And  so  we  beseech 
of  thee  that  we  may  not  count  the  long-suffering  of  God  as  another  argu- 
ment for  our  own  sinfulness. 

Call  back  those  who  have  wandered.  Call  back  those  who,  knowing  bet- 
ter, have  transgressed  their  own  deliberate  knowledge,  and  sinned  against  the 
light  that  shines  upon  their  paths.  Call  back  those  who  have  backslidden 
from  their  faith  in  Christ.  Call  back  those  that  once  were  very  near,  but 
that  now  are  afar  off.  Remember  the  forgetting;  remember  the  prayerless; 
remember  those  whose  consciences  testify  against  them  from  day  to  day,  and 
testify  in  vain.  And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt 
grant  that  there  may  be  many  that  are  in  darkness,  and  are  arrayed  against 
thee  and  thine,  who  shall  be  subdued  by  the  power  of  thy  Spirit,  and  by  the 
word  of  truth,  and  by  the  mighty  grace  of  God.  And  may  there  be  many 
souls  born  again  in  our  midst.  May  there  be  many  that  shall  become  wit- 
nesses for  Christ,  As  after  the  long  winter  the  birds  come,  and  break  out 
in  all  the  trees,  and  sing  their  renewed  songs  of  gladness  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  so  may  we  have  the  voices  of  those  who  sing  forth  the  praises  of 
thy  salvation.  Is  it  not  time  for  the  singing  of  birds  again  ?  We  beseech  of 
thee  that  the  winter  may  be  passed,  and  that  there  may  be  all  the  signs  and 
tokens  of  thy  coming  with  thy  great  grace  and  power  in  the  midst°of  this 
congregation.  And  we  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  we  may  every  one  of  us 
search  out  the  hidden  places  of  our  life;  that  we  may  put  in  order  every- 
thing in  our  household,  and  everything  throughout  all  our  lives.  May  we 
endeavor  to  prepare  the  way,  and  cast  it  up,  that  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord 


514  ■       THE  FBIVILEGE  OF  WOBEING. 

may  return  and  come  to  Zion.  Bring  in  the  ransomed  ones.  Go  forth  for 
those  who  are  in  captivity,    Bring  them  hack  with  shoutings  of  joy. 

And  now,  Lord,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  bless  every  one  in  thy 
presence  according  to  his  individual  need — for  thou  kuowest  what  that  need 
is.  Thou  and  the  heart  that  suffers  only  know  the  secret  suffering.  And 
we  pray  that  thou  wilt  succor  those  who  are  in  the  bondage  of  fear,  and 
those  who  are  in  despondency,  and  those  who  are  overmatched  in  their  con- 
flicts with  life,  and  who  every  day  fall  down  and  add  sin  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  imperfections.  In  every  way,  O  Lord,  have  compassion  upon 
those  who  do  not  know  how  to  help  themselves,  and  who  are  crushed  indeed. 
Lift  them  up.  Speak  comfortable  words  to  them.  And  though  they  sit 
desolate,  and  the  shame  of  their  nakedness  oppresses  them,  O  thou  that 
didst  rescue  by  thine  own  life,  and  that  didst  give  thine  own  blood  to  save 
thy  creatures,  O  thou  that  art  full  of  mercy  alike  to  the  children  of  sin  and 
of  affliction,  succor  them. 

And  we  pray  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  be  very  near  to  any  who 
are  in  thy  presence  to-day— stranfiers  among  us,  yet  not  strangers  to  the 
household  of  faith.  And  wilt  thou  grant  that  here  they  may  find  the  open 
gate.  Here  may  they  find  the  altar.  Here  may  they  And  their  Father's 
house,  and  take  bread  from  his  table.  And  if  tlieir  thoughts  go  backward 
toward  those  whom  they  have  loved.  Lord  go  with  their  thoughts.  And 
multiply  the  blessings  which  they  receive.  Open  all  honor  and  truth  to 
them. 

And  we  pray,  if  there  are  any  wandering  aimless  and  discouraged, 
strangers  in  a  strange  land,  with  staff  broken  and  every  hope  cut  off,  that 
they  may  not  give  up  all  confidence.  May  thpy  kaow  how  to  wait  patiently 
on  the  Lord,  and  to  be  sure  that  their  cup  shall  be  filled,  and  that  their 
staff  shall  yet  be  established  in  strength.  And  when  their  eyesight  fails, 
may  they  have  faith. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  be  very  near  to  those  who 
are  seeking  to  restore  themselves  to  their  first-love.  And  have  compa^s'on 
upon  all  that  are  endeavoring  to  break  away  from  the  bonds  and  the  thralls 
which  have  bound  them  and  held  them  so  long.  Are  there  not  many  who 
stretch  out  their  hands  from  prison  windows  which  they  cannot  escape 
from?  O  thou  that  didat  come  to  open  the  prison-doors,  come  and  bring 
them  forth.  Are  there  not  many  the  sound  of  whose  chsiins  is  in  thine  ear, 
and  who  cannot  free  themselves  ?  O  thou  that  didst  break  the  chain  of  the 
captive,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  help  friie  helpless,  and  succor  the  needy,  and 
take  care  of  the  outcast,  and  breathe  the  Spirit  into  us  by  which  we,  too,  in 
our  places,  shall  endeavor  to  do  the  same  work  of  the  Lord. 

May  we  all  remember  that  our  time  is  short,  and  that  our  day  is  hasten- 
ing. The  sun  is  going  down  already  upon  us.  What  we  have  to  do  we  miefc 
do  quickly.  The  night  cometh  when  no  man  can  labor.  May  we  therefore 
gird  our  loins  with  the  fresh  consecration  of  a  new  zeal.  May  we  begin 
from  this  day  forth  and  do  the  Lord's  work,  wherever  in  his  providi^nce  we 
are  planted.  We  commend  ourselves  to  thee  for  life,  and  for  death,  and 
for  immortality. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  the  praise  forever  and 
ever.    Amen. 


^ 


Princeton  Theoloqical  ^^"]j,^„^,il,l^^!.f^\l^^ 


1    1012  01166  2287 


DATE  DUE 

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HIGHSMIl 

m  #45115 

1 

